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tTbougbts on the IReligious 

Xife 



REFLECTWUS.:_ .; 
On the General Principles of the Religious Life,;, on Perfect Charity 
the End of the Religiou5^t.ife^ on- Vocation, the Vows, 
the Rules, the Cloister Virtues "and: the Main 



Devotton^ bf the* Church . 

WITH AN APP^NDiX OF | 



Maxifns and Counsels of Saints and Spiritual Writers 



il 






EDITED BY 

IRev* jf. f ♦ Xasance 

Author of '"''Prayer-book for Religious^'''' ''"Visits to Jesus 
in the TahernacUy etc, etc. 



New York, Cincinnati, Chicago 

Benslaer Brotbere 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See 
1907 



SdX4ZlO 
.33 



mfbll ©batat 



REMY LAFORT, 

Censor Librorum. 



U8RARY of CONGRESS 
Two Oootes Hacelved 

NOV 4 xmf 

Copyngfh! Ditiy 

CLASS ^ XXCm No. 

OOPY B. 



Ifmprtmatun 



New York, August 27, 1907. 



4^ JNO. M. FARLEY, 

Archbishot of New York, 



Copyright, 1907, by Benziger Brothers. 



Ad Major em Dei Gloriam. 

3focewor&* 



Thoughts on the Religious Life is primarily 
intended as a book of spiritual reading for all our 
Sisterhoods without exception. We love them all and 
offer them this work as a tribute of our profound 
admiration and respect, in the hope that it may prove 
a source of encouragement and helpfulness to them 
in their life of sacrifice and sublime self-immolation 
on the altar of divine and fraternal charity. 

The first volume of Basso's Vollkommene Klos- 
terfrau, which treats of the religious life in general, 
forms the basis of the present work. On this basis 
we have built a superstructure consisting of a com- 
pilation of papers from various Catholic magazines, 
and articles from many books, relating to the spir- 
itual life, the virtues and devotions belonging to the 
cloister. Basso's second volume, which treats spe- 
cifically and in detail of the religious promise, the 
vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity, may some 
day be utilized by us for the construction of a sequel 
to Reflections for Religious. 

It is over two hundred years since Basso's excel- 
lent work on The Perfect Religious was first trans- 
lated from the original Italian into German. The 
basis of the present English adaptation is an im- 
proved German edition of the work published in 
1867, the preface of which reads as follows : 

''The Perfect Religious, or True Virtues of the 
Cloister, by the Very Reverend Charles Andrew 
Basso, Provost of Trezzo, embodies, in language 



vi Foreword, 

clear and simple, a full exposition of the fundamental 
principles of holy Mother Church and the luminous 
teachings of her most approved spiritual writers on 
the cloistered life and the perfection to which a 
Religious is bound to aim; and therefore we deem 
it not a superfluous task to place it in the hands of 
German readers. It has been enlarged by the addi- 
tion of some practical points of the interior life, 
taken from the writhigs of experienced spiritual 
directors. 

''Although written ostensibly for female Re- 
ligious, its pages, with very few exceptions, apply 
equally to the other sex, and even devout persons in 
the secular life may find instruction and edification 
in its perusal. The virtues are treated clearly and 
practically, and in a manner that incites the soul to 
their exercise. 

'/Confessors, whether intrusted with the guidance 
of souls leading the Christian life in the way of the 
Commandments, or of those under the holy vows of 
Religion, may find in Provost Basso's work ample 
direction for the wise execution of their difliicult task. 

"May Almighty God bless this work! May it 
prove an encouragement to zealous Religious to new 
and persevering efforts in the work of self-sanctifi- 
cation, and may it reawaken in tepid hearts their 
first love, that love which urged them in their early 
years to adopt the perfect life !" 

Basso's work is certainly on a level with and 
perhaps a little above other well-known, popular 
spiritual books of its class. It is evidently from the 
pen of a spiritual man of wide experience ; it reveals 
the author as one who speaks from intimate knowl- 
edge of the religious life ; it makes no effort save 
to enlighten souls called to the state of perfection 
along the safe and sure road of humility 'and self- 



Foreword. vii 

denial. We have, however, excluded from the pres- 
ent adaptation a large amount of illustrative ma- 
terial, such as anecdotes from the Fathers, tales of 
marvelous visions and legends from the Lives of 
the Saints, which, though doubtless pleasing to 
pious souls, we deemed unsuited to the trend of the 
day, and incapable of standing in the searchlight of 
Bollandist criticism. It is regrettable that in the 
works of so many hagiologists, especially of the 
biographies of saints written in the Middle Ages, 
there is an overflow of the marvelous without any 
essay at criticism. As Giraud says in his Life of St, 
Dominic: "The historian should beware of exag- 
geration. Without denying the marvelous or the 
miraculous, it is his duty to weigh evidence, and, 
even though it should be necessary to set aside 
poetic and attractive legends, to accept that only 
which appears to be authentic.'' 

The wTiter of spiritual books of any kind, as well 
as the biographer, should heed this admonition and 
carefully exclude what seems absurd and unau- 
thentic. 

We take this opportunity of expressing our sin- 
cere thanks to the editors, authors, and publishers, 
whose courtesy and generosity enabled us to em- 
body in this work the articles credited to them.* 

We trust .that by gathering these instructive and 
interesting articles from so many eminent sources 
and adjusting them in the present setting, like 
precious stones from many lands, shaped and set in 

*We thank, in particular, the reverend editors of The 
American Ecclesiastical Review ^ The Sentinel of the 
Blessed Sacrament, and Emmanuel, for the most generous 
concessions. We are, however, under the heaviest obliga- 
tion to a Visitandine of Georgetown, D. C, who prepared 
the first draft of that part of the present work which is an 
adaptation from Basso. 



viii Foreword. 

2L mosaic, we have done Religious a real service. 
In regard to both the compilation and the adapta- 
tion, which we regard as equally important features 
of the book, we confess that we have allowed our- 
selves great liberties in the choice of material and 
in the shaping of the same to suit our plan and pur- 
pose. Though intended primarily and principally 
for female Religious, this work is suited also to 
monks and to the various congregations of men that 
are bound by the religious promise. 

We cherish the hope, moreover, and pray that 
since there seems to be a dearth of postulants in 
many of our convents, this book may fall into the 
hands of many young women, and, by the grace of 
God, be instrumental in rousing some from spiritual 
torpidity due to the blandishments of the world ; in 
opening their eyes to the grandeur of the religious 
life, and the beauty of that enclosed garden of the 
Lord, where the fairest flowers of virtue — above all, 
the rose of charity — ^bloom in unsurpassed abun- 
dance and splendor of development ; and in attract- 
ing them to that school of sanctity, where, as St. 
Bernard says, ''Men lead a purer life, fall into sin 
less frequently, rise again more easily, walk more 
cautiously, rest more tranquilly, die more happily, 
and reap a richer reward for eternity/' Where, like 
Mary, the soul may nestle securely in sweetest con- 
templation at the feet of Jesus, and, again, like 
Martha, be active in serving the Master's interests, 
in seeking to satisfy His thirst for souls by minis- 
tering to the temporal and spiritual needs of her 
neighbor, in imitation of His own example while He 
was on earth, when it was said of Him that He did 
all things well and went about doing good to all. 

F. X. L. 
Feast of St. Paul, First Hermit. 
1907. 



Contents* 

part !♦ 
VOCATION TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

PAGE 

Foreword v 

Chapter i. — The Words Monk and Nun . . i 

Chapter ii. — The Essential Characteristic of a 
Perfect Religious Consists in a Truly Spirit- 
ual Life 4 

Chapter hi. — The Name Religious — Self-Re- 
nunciation — Mortification — The Terms Re- 
ligion, Religious, the Convent, Laura, Ascetae, 
Monk, Nun, Religious Orders 9 

Chapter iv. — The Grace of Vocation to the 
Religious State 34 

Chapter v. — Means of Salvation in the Re- 
ligious State 37 

Chapter vi. — Advantages of the Religious State 43 

Chapter vii. — The Religious Truly a Bride of 
Christ — The Religious Profession the Nup- 
tials with Our Lord . . . . . . .47 

Chapter viii. — State of Perfection : How to 
Recognize Vocation to the Religious Life . 55 

Chapter ix. — The Question of a Vocation to 
the Religious State 61 

Chapter x. — The Love of God .... 72 



X Contents. 

PAGE 

Chapter xi. — The Vows — The Rules — Divinely 
Appointed Means for Helping the Soul On- 
wards, Day by Day, to Its Life of Perfect 
Charity 8o 

Chapter xii. — The Religious Promise . . 86 

Chapter xiii. — General Principles of the Re- 
ligious Life • • 95 

Chapter xiv. — The Renewal of Vows . . loi 

Chapter xv. — Christian Asceticism and Com- 
mon Sense . . io8 

Chapter xvi. — Was Christ an Ascetic? . .117 

Chapter xvii. — The Duties of a Religious 
Toward God — A Religious Should Belong 
Entirely to God 127 

Chapter xviii. — The Essence of Perfection — 
The Union of All Virtues in Charity . .138 

Chapter xix. — The Love of a Religious for 
Jesus Christ 158 

Chapter xx. — Conformity with the Divine 
Will — Abandonment 164 

Chapter xxi. — The Exercise of the Presence 
of God an Aid to the Practice of Perfect Con- 
formity with the Divine Will — Of Recalling 
the Presence of God by Means of the Under- 
standing — ^Of Recalling the Presence of God 
by Means of the Will ....... 183 

Chapter xxii. — The Presence of God Consid- 
ered in the Hidden Life 194 

Chapter xxiit. — Humility and Its Advantages 198 

Chapter xxiv. — Humility of the Understand- 
ing 206 



Contents. xi 

PAGE 

Chapter xxv. — Humility of the Will . . .214 

Chapter xxvi. — Purity of Intention . . . 237 

Chapter xxvii. — The Necessity of a Spiritual • 
Father, or Director, and of Obedience to Him 250 

Chapter xxviii. — On the Duties of Religious 
Toward Their Superiors and Spiritual Direct- 
ors — On the Importance of Candor and Sin- 
cerity Toward Superiors 263 

Chapter xxix. — Counsels and Reflections for 
Superiors 274 

Chapter xxx. — The Contemplative Life — The 
Contemplative Vocation — The Contemplative 
Apostolate 287 

Chapter xxxi. — Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Par- 
ticular .... 308 

Chapter xxxii. — Mental Prayer or Meditation 323 

Chapter xxxiii. — The Importance of Medita- 
tion—Books and Methods of Meditation . 334 

Chapter xxxiv. — On Continual Prayer . . 350 

Chapter xxxv. — The Breviary — The Divine 
Office 361 

Chapter xxxvi. — The Spirit of the Divine 
Office 382 

Chapter xxxvii. — Mortification — The Neces- 
sity of Mortification and in What It Consists 392 

Chapter xxxviii. — Interior and Exterior Mor- 
tification 396 

Chapter xxxix. — Mortification of the Senses 
and Human Suffering — Human Suffering as 
a Source of Merit and Blessings . . . 414 



xii Contents, 

PAGE 

Chapter xl. — Silence ....... 432 

Chapter xli. — Fraternal Charity — Of the Ne- 
. cessity of Mutual Love and Union . . . 441 

Chapter xlii. — Faith and Humor .... 458 

Chapter xliii. — Cheerfulness 465 

Chapter xliv.- — The Apostleship of Kindness 481 

Chapter xlv. — Reflections on Happiness . 486 

Chapter xlvi. — The Sweetness of the Heart 
of Jesus in His Manner of Teaching . . 491 

Chapter xlvii. — The Perfection of the Relig- 
ious Teacher 497 



part irir* 

THOUGHTS ON CERTAIN DEVOTIONS 
AND PIOUS PRACTICES PERTAIN- 
ING TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

Chapter xlviii. — The Holy Trinity — I. God 
the Father. 11. God the Son. HI. God the 
Holy Ghost 515 

Chapter xlix. — The Holy Ghost and Religious 
Orders — Call to the Religious State a Special 
Grace of the Holy Ghost 523 

Chapter l. — The Indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit — How to Live by the Spirit . . . 526 

Chapter li. — Jesus Christ the Way, the Truth 
and the Life, Whom We Must Follow . . 536 



Contents. xiii 

PAGE 

Chapter lii. — The Three Degrees of Humility 
the Way to Christian Perfection .... 553 

Chapter liii. — The Blessed Sacrament — The 
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — The Mysteries of 
Our Lord's Life and Passion Reproduced in 
the Mysteries of the Altar — Holy Sacrifice of 
the Altar — -Daily Visits to the Most Blessed 
Sacrament 559 

Chapter liv. — Emmanuel 589 

Chapter lv. — The Hour of Adoration before 
the Blessed Sacrament — The Method of 
Adoration by Means of the Four Ends of the 
Sacrifice 594 

Chapter lvi. — The Relation of Devotion to the 
Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Sacrament 607 

Chapter lvii. — The Love of the Sacred Heart 
for the Eternal Father — The Apostleship of 
Prayer — The Twofold Devotion to the Sacred 
Heart — The Apostleship of Prayer the Per- 
petuation of the Work of the Incarnation — 
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is Twofold, 
Reparatory and Apostolic 625 

Chapter lviii. — Pious Practices in Honor of 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus 641 

Chapter lix. — The Promises of Our Divine 
Redeemer to Those Who Venerate His 
Sacred Heart — The Twelfth Promise in Par- 
ticular 648 

Chapter lx. — The Heart of Jesus in Prayer 656 

Chapter lxi. — The Meekness of the Heart 
of Jesus 661 



xiv Contents, 

PAGE 

Chapter lxii. — Pontifical Decrees Concerning 
Daily Communion — ''Why Art Thou 
Afraid?" 671 

Chapter lxiii. — Communion for Religious . 692 

Chapter lxiv. — Commentary on the Decree of 
the Sacred Congregation of the Council Re- 
garding Daily Communion . . . . . 701 

Chapter lxv. — Sanctifying Grace .... 723 

Chapter lxvi. — Devotion to the Passion of 
Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ . . 727 

Chapter lxvii. — Observations Concerning the 
Meditations on the Passion of Christ — Re- 
flections on the Passion of Our Lord . . 733 

Chapter lxviii. — Devotion to the Blessed' Vir- 
gin — Mary's Love for Religious — Mary's De- 
sire to Help Her Children . . . . . . 742 

Chapter lxix. — Mary, Our Mother: How to 
Honor Her — The Most Holy Rosary: Other 
Devotions and Pious Practices — The Mass 
and the Rosary 750 

Chapter lxx. — Mary, the Model of Holy Vir- 
ginity 765 

Chapter lxxi. — The Imitation of Mary in Her 
Obedience and in Her Poverty — The Obedi- 
ence of Mary — The Poverty of Mary . . 774 

Chapter lxxii. — Mary, the Holv Mother of 
God \ ... 781 

Chapter lxxiii. — Our Lady of the Blessed 
Sacrament 794 

Chapter lxxiv. — ^^Mary Immaculate — The Im- 
maculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin 804 



Contents. xv 

PAGE 

Chapter lxxv. — Mater Dolorosa — Our Blessed 
Mother of Sorrows 8i8 

Chapter lxxvi. — Our Lady's Day — Saturday 
Dedicated to the Immaculate Conception . 839 

Chapter lxxvii. — The Blessed Sacrament and 
St. Joseph 843 

Chapter lxxviii. — On Devotion to St. Joseph, 
the Spouse of the Most Blessed Virgin . 847 

Appendix. — Maxims and Counsels of Saints 
and Spiritual Writers 853 

Addenda 909 



PART I. 
location to tbe IReUgious %lfc. 



CHAPTER I. 

Zbc TimorD0 /Ronk auD Vinn. 

QfouLS called to perfection can not fulfil their 
i^ vocation unless they understand the duties 
and obligations of that vocation. Although the 
meritorious works of a Religious must flow from 
the will, yet it is for the understanding, as its true 
guide, to direct the will in the choice of good and the 
avoidance of evil. The will, accordingly, chooses 
only after the understanding has shown it that an 
action is good or bad. The Royal Prophet prayed 
to know the divine law when he said : ''Give me un- 
derstanding, and I will search Thy law ; and I will 
keep it with my whole hearf' (Ps. cxviii. 34). 
God's revelation of Himself on Mount Sinai (Ex. 
xxxiv. ) shows how necessary it is to know what He 
requires of us when calling us to His service and to 
the fulfilment of His holy will. All spiritual writers 
teach that, to attain perfection, besides setting high 
value on it, we must ardently desire it and spare no 
effort to attain it. But how can anything be valued 
at its real worth unless its worth is known? 
Precious stones are little prized by him who does 
not understand their value. 

God says by the mouth of the Royal Prophet : 
*'For I am the Lord, thy God, who brought thee out 
of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I 
will fill it'' (Ps. Ixxx. 11). The Psalmist signifies 
by these words that if the Israelites praise and serve 



2 The Words Monk and Nun. 

the Lord in thankful acknowledgment of His bene- 
fits, they will become worthy of new favors. They 
may also be applied to the Religious whom God 
has led out of Egypt — out of the snares of the world, 
so that she may devote herself wholly to Him who 
is to be her full inheritance. 

A convent may very aptly be compared to the 
workshop of a goldsmith or jeweler. The Religious 
is a merchant in the business of the spiritual life. 
He, above all, must know the worth of his jewels. 
Ignorance would injure his business and reduce him 
to poverty. A man may be well-versed in rhetoric, 
physics, or any other branch of science ; but if he is 
ignorant of the technicalities of his own special call- 
ing, the world will call him a fool. This holds good 
in respect to the spiritual life. Ignorance of its 
duties must lead to dire results. Dorotheus insin- 
uated this to his disciple Dositheus, who was prid- 
ing himself on the well-arranged beds of the sick 
of whom he had charge. He even hinted that none 
other could do these as well as himself. '*Yes, 
brother," said Dorotheus, ''the beds are done in 
masterly style. In case of necessity you would make 
an admirable valet. But it takes more than that to 
make a good Religious.'' And so a nun may be a 
good worker, a brilliant teacher, a skilful cook, a 
discreet portress, though she has not yet mounted 
the first round of the ladder of perfection. But if 
she understands her duties she will aim at the 
simple observance of the Rules and customs of her 
Order. Her very name, monacha, or nun, imposes 
the obligation of treading the way of perfection. 

The word monacha, or mm, is derived from 
monachus, or monk. . The ancients applied this 
term to a man who had forsaken all intercourse with 
the world in order to lead a solitary life. It became 



The Words Monk and Nun. 3 

customary among Christians, therefore, to designate 
as monachi, or monks, those that buried themselves 
in distant solitudes for undisturbed communion 
with God. Their abodes were called monasteria, 
that is, dwellings of solitaries. Although later 
these solitaries lived together in greater numbers 
and under the guidance of an abbot (which word, 
in Syriac, means father), they still retained the 
name of monachi, or monks, and their dwellings 
were called cenohia, places in which many dwell to- 
gether in community, or monasteria, abodes for a 
solitary life. Philo says of the Egyptian monks that 
they led indeed a community life, but retired, morti- 
fied, and heavenly. Hence it follows that the name 
monacha, or nun, means a woman living retired 
from the world, which she has forsaken not only from 
love for the cloistered life, but also through the de- 
sire to live in community and devote herself entirely 
to God. The names of those who enter a cloister are 
changed, the hair is cut, and the religious habit is 
substituted for the secular dress — all of which sym- 
bolize absolute detachment from the world. 

From the foregoing, a nun may readily under- 
stand the nature of her duties and the proper regula- 
tion of her life. If inclined to harbor distracting 
thoughts she should ask herself: ''How can you en- 
courage thoughts of the world — you who have for- 
saken it to consecrate yourself to God ?" The words 
of St. Basil will form a fitting conclusion to this 
chapter : ''A nun must be like a slave after she has 
become the property of her purchaser. She must 
no longer allow her thoughts to dwell on past free- 
dom ; all her efiforts must tend to the punctual fulfil- 
ment of her Master's will." Happy the nun who 
serves God in this way, for thus to serve is to reign ! 



CHAPTER 11. 

Zbc iBBBcntM Cbaracter(0ttc ot a ©ertect IRellgioua 
Conaiata in a Zvnl^ Spiritual %itc. 

IF even the word nun carries with it weighty 
obligations, that Religious is indeed foolish 
who imagines that the mere name and habit of Re- 
ligion, without the discharge of the duties they im- 
pose, give her a right to eternal salvation. 

St. Bernard says on this subject that many Chris- 
tians glory in their name, and yet they will not be 
recognized by God as Catholic Christians, because 
their life does not correspond to the name they 
bear. If they do not fulfil the duties of Catholic 
Christians, their hope is vain. ''I fear,'' says the 
holy Doctor, ''that God will say to many Christians, 
'You honor Me with your lips, but your heart is 
far from Me.' *' And he continues : "Follow the will 
of Jesus Christ, and He will number you among 
His own." Truly spiritual are those Religious who 
are not content with assuming the habit and the 
vows, but keep the promises they have made and 
live in accordance with their state. That person 
can not be called spiritual whose morals and man- 
ners are not in accord with the name and the habit 
of a Religious. Entrance into Religion is a change 
from an imperfect to a perfect state. This change 
must not be of external appearance only. Interior 
conversion must precede it, as God teaches by the 
Prophet : "Be converted to Me with all your heart, 
in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And 
rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn 
to the Lord your God" (Joel ii. 12, 13). St. 



Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious. 5 

Bernard remarks on these words : "God says not 
only, 'Be converted to Me, and change a silken robe 
for a rough habit, a costly girdle for a leathern or a 
hempen one, worldly titles for a modest religious 
name;' but He demands an interior change, a true 
conversion of heart/' The outward change is of 
little worth if not accompanied by the inward con- 
version. 

Holy Scripture corroborates this statement, 
(i Kings X.) After Samuel had, with all the accus- 
tomed ceremonies, anointed Saul king over the 
Israelites, he reminded him that, although the crown 
and scepter were his, God did not yet dwell in him. 
That distinction was not yet his. "The Spirit of the 
Lord shall come upon thee, and thou shalt be 
changed into another man,'' said Samuel to him. 
Neither the title nor the scepter nor the crown con- 
ferred the regal dignity, but only his own change of 
life and compliance with the inspirations of the 
Holy Spirit. So, too, neither by the habit nor 
by any ceremonies can a nun become a perfect 
Religious. Her perfection depends on her fidelity to 
the voice of the Holy Ghost and to her obligations. 
St. Augustine says : "The place does not make the 
saint, but an innocent life sanctifies both us and the 
place." What place is more holy than heaven? And 
yet many of the angels in heaven sinned and were 
cast into hell. Next to heaven, what place was 
holier than the earthly paradise in which so much 
happiness and so many blessings were prepared for 
our first parents? But despite the hoHness of the 
place, they disobeyed God's command and sinned. 
A nun must not think her salvation secure because 
she has been received into a religious house. 

A fur-lined cloak, no matter how rich and elegant, 
will not keep out the cold unless the body is warmed 



6 Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious. 

by the natural heat of the wearer. Then it not only 
retains, but also increases that heat. No amount of 
clothing will warm a dead body, since its natural 
heat has departed with life. So the holiest religious 
habit will not help to salvation, unless she who 
wxars it is glowing with the fire of God's love. 

Those Religious who are satisfied with the name 
and habit are a hindrance to others striving after 
perfection. It is impossible for them to long hide 
the love of the world which still lurks in their 
heart. The Spirit of God will not be overcome by 
that of the Avorld. As David could not move freely 
in the armor of Saul to which he was unaccustomed, 
neither can such Religious perform spiritual works, 
and their bad example disturbs the other Sisters. 
They are like the ape spoken of by Lucian. Some 
children had dressed it up in their own clothes, and 
taught it to dance so well that many did not know 
at first that it was a monkey. But when one of the 
children began to dance with it, and accidentally 
allowed it to see some nuts, pausing in the dance it 
seized upon them, thus manifesting its true charac- 
ter. And so it is with the Religious of whom we 
have spoken. They wear the religious habit, say the 
Office in choir, follow the conventual exercises like 
the others, and are sometimes considered to be as 
virtuous as they. But because they do not possess 
the religious spirit, their hypocritical piety is soon 
discovered. They violate the Rule on every oc- 
casion, they are sensitive and disobedient, and, be- 
ing actuated by w^orldly thoughts and sentiments, 
they find more consolation everywhere than in di- 
vine things. Can such Religious expect eternal life 
merely because they wear the habit of St. Augustine, 
St. Clare, or St. Teresa? In the pure love of God, 
in the true spiritual life, and in the practice of the 



Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious. 7 

duties of her vocation, lies the essential character of 
a perfect nun. God is not blind. He can not be de- 
ceived. He will judge us according to our deeds. 
St. Lawrence Justinian says: ''The eternal Judge 
will judge every one, not according to his outward 
honors and distinctions, but according to his works. 
He will examine Religious on their fidelity to the 
Rules of their Order, and according to that He will 
pass sentence." 

Her name, her religious habit, the very walls of the 
cloister will cry to heaven for vengeance against 
that nun who has not lived in conformity with her 
vocation. Surely a sick man whose evil condition 
the best remedies and the most skilful physicians 
only aggravate would be pronounced incurable. 
Now, every Order approved by the Holy See may be 
likened to a pharmacy filled with spiritual remedies, 
not only for the cure of sick souls, but for the 
strengthening of healthy ones in the grace of God. 
Some of those spiritual remedies are: The frequent 
reception of the holy sacraments, the religious exer- 
cises, the innumerable opportunities for the practice 
of virtue, the watchful guidance of Superiors, the 
Rules and customs of the Order, and the good ex- 
ample of others. If, among all this abundance of 
remedies, a nun continues spiritually sick, gainmg 
from the religious life nothing but the name and 
garb, she may rest assured that these will procure 
her only greater anguish and more severe punish- 
ment. 

St. Augustine declared after his conversion that 
he never knew more virtuous souls than those that 
served God in religion with their whole heart; but, 
on the contrary, none worse than they who sinned 
in the religious life. The truth of his remark is 
clear. The greater the obligation and the oppor- 



8 Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious. 

tunity to do good the graver the fault of omis- 
sion. 

What fear and confusion will seize the insincere 
and faithless Religious when Almighty God, at the 
moment of death, will call her to account for her 
reprehensible life! 



CHAPTER III. 

Zbc Iftamc *'1Relt0tou0/'— Selts:lRenunclattom— 
/DSortiticatton* 

Y^ HE name and title of Religious is given to one 
^^ who is specially pledged to the practice of the 
virtue of religion. Religion, in the sense in which 
it is here used, may be regarded from two several 
points of view, that is to say, either in particular, as 
a virtue distinct from the other virtues, or in gen- 
eral, as a virtue comprising all other virtues. 

Inasmuch as it is a particular virtue, it is thus 
defined by St. Thomas : Religion is an interior and 
supernatural habit of the soul which inclines us to 
render to God the worship due to Him. Regarded 
as a general virtue, it comprises the theological and 
at the same time the moral virtues. The teaching of 
the Angelic Doctor is expressed in these precise 
terms : '^Religion is a profession of faith, hope, and 
charity, by means of which man is brought primarily 
into relationship wath God ; and it calls into exercise 
all the other virtues, such as mercy and temper- 
ance." According to these words of St. James : 
*' Religion clean and undefiled before God and the 
Father is this : to visit the fatherless and widows in 
their tribulation, and to keep one's self unspotted 
from this world" (James i. 2^). 

Religion, understood in this latter sense, takes in 
the whole Christian life, either because it directs the 
intention of all moral virtue to God, its rightful end ; 
or because the acts proper to religion, the worship of 
God in truth and verity, necessitate many funda- 
mental virtues such as faith, hope, charity, humility, 



10 The Name Religious. 

etc. Hence, it results, as a natural consequence, that 
every Christian really worthy of the name, that is to 
say, one who conscientiously keeps the Command- 
ments, and who, therefore, practices the Christian 
virtues in the degree required of him, may justly be 
called a Religious. He has, in all truth and justice, 
every right to this title. It seems, however, more 
natural to apply this appellation exclusively to those 
persons who aim at the attainment of Christian per- 
fection. As St. Thomas wisely remarks: "If any- 
thing may be predicated of many persons, those in- 
dividuals have the principal claims to it who possess 
it in the highest degree, or who practice it in its per- 
fection." 

This remark clearly demonstrates how rightly the 
name of Religious is given to those persons who are 
so happy as to have consecrated themselves to God 
in an Order or Congregation approved by the 
Church ; it also explains why entering an Order or 
Congregation thus approved is termed "going into 
Religion.'' Thus we say of the member of an Or- 
der, he or she has been so many years in Religion, 
his or her name in Religion is this or that. 

But if we keep to the strict sense of the word as 
denoting a special and distinct virtue, we shall find 
another reason, and a more weighty one, perhaps, 
for acknowledging that persons who are consecrated 
to God by vows may legitimately be entitled Re- 
ligious. 

Religion, as we have already said, is the virtue that 
induces us to pay to God the homage due to Him. 
Now^ there is one act which, as Father de Condren 
asserts, corresponds to all that God is ; and that is 
the act of sacrifice. Therefore sacrifice is preemi- 
nently the act appertaining to the virtue of religion. 
"By sacrifice," says the illustrious General of the 



The Name Religious, ii 

Oratorians, "we acknowledge God as the Supreme 
Being. We acknowledge Him, in His essential and 
incomprehensible grandeur and perfection, as being 
in very truth above all adoration, all love/' In this 
consists the sublimity, the perfection of the act of 
sacrifice ; consequently it comprises in itself all the 
duty man owes to God. For this reason Our Lord, 
when He came among us to be Our Redeemer, our 
pattern, was above all and before all a living sacri- 
fice before His heavenly Father — that is to say, a 
victim and an eternal holocaust to His glory. 

Now, every soul consecrated to God is also, in 
union with Our Lord, a victim, a holocaust before 
God. '*You are now," St. Francis de Sales said to a 
young nun, after her profession in the Visitation, 
''you are now laid upon the sacred altar to be con- 
sumed as a whole burnt-ofifering." 

Consequently, in this state, and by the dispositions 
befitting this state, the soul consecrated to God by 
vows truly fulfils, in so far as in her lies, all the du- 
ties of the virtue of religion. Thus her rightful 
name, the title that best answers to her state and 
vocation, is the name, the title of Religious. 

It may perchance strike the young novice that we 
are somewhat premature in dealing with a subject 
which in itself seems to imply a certain degree of 
perfection. In one sense, it is true, self-renunciation 
is peculiarly a characteristic of the perfect; it may 
almost be said that in one respect it actually is per- 
fection. But this virtue, like every other, is only 
acquired by degrees, little by little, and it will be 
so with us. And since Our Lord said to all men — as 
St. Luke expressly states : ''Dicebat autem ad 
omnes/' ''He said to all" — "If any man will come 
after Me, let him deny himself" (Luke ix. 23), thus 
specifying renunciation and self-denial as the first 



12 The Name Religious. 

condition of walking in His steps, it is only natural 
that we should treat of it in the commencement of 
the instructions we address to novices,''' who have 
every right to be regarded as those happy disciples 
of Our Lord,who,having abandoned the world, walk 
con amove in the footsteps of their divine Master. 

Here there are three things that must be atten- 
tively considered and thoroughly apprehended in or- 
der to form a correct idea of the virtue of self-re- 
nunciation. First of all, it is essential to know what 
is understood by this self, this ego, which has to be 
renounced ; in the second place, to ascertain accu- 
rately what are the distinctive characteristics by 
which it makes its presence manifest within us ; 
finally, to learn the way whereby to give it its death- 
blow, and that is by the practice of the virtue of self- 
denial. 

Let the young novice, therefore, pay close atten- 
tion to this subject; it is one of very great impor- 
tance. It is utterly impossible to advance a single 
step in the spiritual life without the knowledge of 
w^hat we are about to expound, without love for the 
means which we are about to point out for the ac- 
quisition of so indispensable a virtue. In fact, with- 
out self-renunciation what would be the meaning of 
that title of victim which we bear in virtue of our 
oblation? It would only be a great, a grievous 
mockery. 

*Father Surin, writing to the Mistress of Novices, says: 
''They must be early accustomed to give up their own will, 
to die to their passions, to raise their hearts above creatures, 
and made to feel ashamed of all the instincts of nature. 
This renunciation will lead direct to charity, and render 
them obedient to the impulses of grace, for there is no 
shorter route whereby to arrive at the love of Our Lord 
than the mortification of all our natural propensities, our 
desires, our tastes, our pleasures." 



The Name Religious. 13 

I. What is the self which we are bound to re- 
nounce? The word self signifies a certain Hfe with- 
in us which is, to some extent, a part of ourselves, 
and which we ought to exterminate. Let us explain 
this. 

In every man and woman there are three several 
lives : the natural life, the supernatural life, the life 
of self. The natural life is the life of the senses, by 
which we come and go, we see the objects around 
us, etc. ; it is also the life of the intellect, inasmuch 
as its faculties (such as the understanding, will, 
judgment, resolution, etc.) are employed in a wholly 
natural manner, apart from the supernatural succor 
of grace. It is called the natural life because it per- 
forms the acts proper to it by the natural means 
wherewith God has endowed us, i, ^., the organs of 
sense and the faculties of the mind. We possess 
this life when we are born into the world. It is 
needless to say that our natural life is not that which 
we are bound to destroy, for to do so would be to 
commit the grievous crime of suicide. 

There is within us a second life as real and actual 
as the first, but the existence of which can not be 
verified by the testimony of the senses ; it is the 
supernatural life, which w^e received at our baptism 
and which is also called sanctifying grace, or the 
life of Christ in our souls. Our Lord referred to 
this life when He said : 'T am come that they may 
have life, and may have it more abundantly'' 
(John X. 10). St. Paul speaks of it frequently to 
the faithful in his epistles ; we can not attempt to 
quote the numerous passages. Of himself he says : 
*T live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 
20). This divine life, which St. Peter designates as 
^'fellowship with God," is, therefore, really within 
us, if we have preserved our baptismal grace, or if, 



14 The Name Religious. 

having lost it by mortal sin, we have recovered it 
by the Sacrament of Penance. And as life of every 
kind makes its existence known by inward move- 
ments and outward acts, so the life of grace, the life 
of Jesus Christ within us, manifests itself by inward 
desires, an attraction for matters of faith, the max- 
ims of the Gospel, Christian virtues, and outward 
supernatural acts in keeping with those inward in- 
clinations. 

Happy the souls who live by this holy and divine 
life in unbroken continuity ! All their actions are 
meritorious and worthy of Him who died that we 
might have life, this supernatural life of which we 
speak. It would be absurd, nay impious, to say 
that this most excellent life is the one which must 
be destroyed in us. We do destroy it if we have 
the misfortune to commit mortal sin, and this is so 
stupendous a misfortune that no physical affliction 
that could befall us on earth is to be compared 
to it. 

Finally, there is within us a third life, an evil life, 
the source and principle of bad inclinations and 
bad deeds. St. Paul alludes to this life when he 
congratulates the faithful on having extinguished it 
within them. ''You are dead,'' he says — that is, dead 
to the life of sin — ''and your life [the new life of 
grace] is hid with Christ in God" (Col. iii. 3). And 
elsewhere he says : "For we that are dead to sin, 
how shall we live any longer therein?'' (Rom. vi. 
2.) Again he speaks of it under different designa- 
tions ; he calls it the "law of our members," because 
being utterly corrupt this life seems to act princi- 
pally through the instrumentality of the flesh ; he 
calls it the "old man" because it exists within us pre- 
vious to our baptism and has its germ in original 
sin. This is the reason why this baneful life is also 



The Name Religious, 15 

Spoken of as the life of Adam, as the supernatural 
life is termed the life of Jesus Christ. 

All this is unquestionably true. Baptism has set 
us free from original sin, but it has not taken from 
us the tendency to evil which is one consequence of 
original sin, and this proneness to evil is precisely 
what reveals the existence within us of this third 
life which struggles against the life of grace, ever 
striving to subdue and annihilate it, whereas it is 
itself that must be destroyed and extirpated, if possi- 
ble, with the help of divine grace. 

But why is this evil life, which we are bound to 
destroy, this life of sin (if it may be so called on 
account of the work it produces), this fatal life, why 
is it called the life of self? 

The reason is this. Because just as the life of 
grace which was imparted to us in baptism leads us 
to make God our center and final end, so that all our 
actions are directed to His good pleasure and His 
glory, in like manner the life of sin, the life of the 
old man, the life of Adam, leads us to make- our- 
selves our center and our end, and in all things to 
seek our own gratification and glory. But this will 
be more fully explained by what follows. 

2. The general characteristics of the life of self 
which we ought to renounce. 

These general characteristics are self-love, self- 
will, and attachment to one's own opinion. This 
means that the life of Adam within us makes its 
presence known by three propensities which it 
creates in us. It leads us to love ourselves, to desire 
nothing but what pleases us, and to cling obstinately 
to our own opinions and our own judgments. 

The first destructive characteristic is self-love. 
Self-love induces us to conceive a high esteem of 
ourselves, to think all that we do is right, to desire 



i6 The Name Religious. 



the good opinion of others, and do all we can to 
avoid lessening that good opinion ; to give way to 
sadness and dejection when we encounter the hu- 
miliations inevitable in this life, etc. It also leads 
us to seek our own gratification in everything : in 
our thoughts, in giving free play to our imagina- 
tions, our recollections ; in our occupations, our 
likes and disHkes, our relation to others, etc. It is 
self, always self, on which our thoughts are cen- 
tered, and which we seek to satisfy and gratify. 

The second characteristic is self-will. This in- 
spires us with a habitual abhorrence of restraint, an 
inherent aversion to all authority. If we love our 
Superiors, we love them for what they are in them- 
selves, their pleasing qualities, their virtues ; we do 
not love the authority with which they are invested. 
If we like some particular Rule or the practice of 
•some mortification, we do so — perhaps uncon- 
sciously to ourselves — because it is self-chosen; 
those that are imposed upon us are far more difficult 
to accept ; sometimes we find them intolerable. 

The third characteristic is attachment to one's 
own opinion. The intellect is the highest part of 
man, it may be said to be the citadel of self. It will 
stand out when all else surrenders. We submit our 
external actions to the government of others ; we 
give up our will, but the mind retains its indepen- 
dence. This is the point which must be attacked by 
fire and sword, for if this fortress is carried, the vic- 
tory will be complete, and divine grace will reign 
in us and dominate all its foes. This destruction, 
this death, will be our triumph, and we shall be en- 
abled to say with St. Paul : '*For to me to live is 
Christ, and to die is gain'' (Phil. i. 21). 

3. How to efifect this complete death of the ego, 
which is perfect self-abnegation. 



The Name Religious. 17 

It must be acknowledged that this is the work of 
a lifetime. Every one has heard what St. Francis 
de Sales said concerning self-love : ''We ought to 
consider ourselves very fortunate if it dies a quar- 
ter of an hour before we do." Oh, what prolonged, 
what painful exertion is required to eventually com- 
pass this death ! It is a long, an arduous task, and 
must, at the same time, be carried on without cessa- 
tion or intermission. It is more easy than one would 
think to lose in a single moment all that has been 
gained in long months of earnest endeavor. Now, 
more than at any time, the Religious appears in the 
light of a victim continually dying, and in virtue of 
the generosity, the persistency of his self-immola- 
tion, enabled to say with St. Paul : '1 die daily'' 
(i Cor. XV. 31). 

Mortification is the usual means whereby we 
attain to the death of self. The word mortification 
is derived from the Latin mors, death, and, in the 
sense in which we employ it, mortification is syn- 
onymous with renunciation. 

But the virtue of renunciation calls to her aid, in 
accomplishing this conquest, several other virtues, 
by means of which she attains the perfection pe- 
culiar to her, which answer to the general charac- 
teristics of this self which we pointed out, viz.: self- 
love, self-will, and attachment to one's own judg- 
ment. Thus humility is instrumental in destroying 
self-love, obedience effects the death of self-will, and 
simplicity that of attachment to our own judgment. 

Cultivate these virtues, and then your life will be 
truly one of self-immolation and consequently most 
pleasing to your divine Spouse. We must die to 
self, and live again to God, in order that we may at- 
tain to true happiness. 

In the eleventh instruction of Thomas a Kempis 



l8 The Name Religious. 

to his novices, he takes as his text these words: 
Lord, ''for Thy sake we are killed all the day long ; 
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter'' (Ps. 
xHii. 22), and expounds them as follows: 

'Tay great heed, my dear brethren, to the words 
you have just heard. Although they were uttered 
by the prophetic lips of the Psalmist long before you 
were born, they are none the less intended to afford 
you, at the present time, most salutary instruction. 

''O my dear brethren, you who are in Religion, 
who live under the rule of obedience, if you fulfil 
your vows faithfully you are martyrs, or at any rate 
you may become martyrs through the sufferings of 
each day. As many times as you devote your 
powers to the performance of your daily work, so 
many times a fresh crown is allotted you as the re- 
ward of your labor. And if, stripped of all self- 
will, you offer staunch resistance to your sensual in- 
clinations, God will give you abundant consolation. 

''A Religious living under obedience, resolved to 
break his own will, endeavoring to execute the will 
of his Superior in all humility, will become, in a 
spiritual sense, a real martyr, although he is not 
called upon to bare his neck to the executioner's 
blade. And he who every day of his life seeks to 
be perfectly mortified, practicing obedience with 
simplicity of heart, imitates the example of Abra- 
ham, who raised no objection when commanded to 
bind his only son Isaac, to slay him and offer him 
as a burnt-offering. 

''We read of the holy martyrs that it was through 
various kinds of tortures that they reached the king- 
dom of heaven. The option as to the sort of death 
or torture they were to suffer was not even left to 
them, yet ^ with perfect resignation to the decrees of 
divine Providence they offered themselves body and 



The Name Religious. 19 

soul to their Creator, ready to endure any and every 
kind of torment. Thus, when any one of you re- 
ceives from his Superior's Hps a command diametri- 
cally opposed to his own will, and nevertheless pre- 
pares to obey that command implicitly, from the 
moment when he forces himself to do violence to 
himself, and suppresses, stifles the murmur that 
rises to his lips, he sacrifices to God, upon the altar 
of his own heart, a victim which is well pleasing to 
Him. Conquering himself, he gains a triumphant 
victory over the enemy after the same manner as 
did the martyrs. 

''You have often read in the Acts of those glori- 
ous confessors an account of the bodily torments in- 
flicted on them. They yielded their members to the 
most cruel tortures. And it behooves you likewise 
to chastise your body by fasting, vigils, silence, and 
manual labor. 

''When any one has got so far as to regard as 
sweet what is bitter, to accept contumely as honor, 
to bear affliction as something pleasurable, then in- 
deed does one truly share with the martyrs Our 
Lord's chalice; then need one no longer dread the 
scathing flames of a future life ; then may one enter- 
tain the hope, the firm and blissful hope, of being 
one day admitted to the company of the saints. 

'Tt was by meditating upon the everlasting pains 
of hell that the martyrs obtained courage to bear the 
keenest torture as if it were a thing of little moment, 
and made choice of the strait and narrow gate 
through which to pass into the boundless realms of 
the kingdom of heaven. (And this is what fervent 
Religious do who are really worthy of the name 
they bear.) 

"Each one, in his own Order, may gain the mar- 
tyr's palm by a devout and pious life. He will sue- 



20 The Name Religious. 

ceed in doing so if he generousl}^ resists his evil pro- 
pensities, prays for his enemies, displays sufficient 
constancy to preserve inviolate the fair flower of 
chastity; if, following Our Lord's example, he is 
obedient even unto death ; if in everything he seeks 
the good pleasure of God and sacrifices his own 
will ; if, finally, he desires always to have less rather 
than more of the good things of the world, and that 
which is needful for the support of this present life. 

"In fact, holy poverty, voluntary poverty, is 
looked upon in the light' of a martyrdom. To the 
poor in spirit, even as to the martyr, the kingdom 
of heaven is promised, is given by Our Lord. 

"In like manner, when silence is imposed upon a 
tongue that loves to speak, when one forbids it to 
address a word either to one of one's fellow-Re- 
ligious or to externes, it is equivalent to binding it 
tightly wnth a cord, a species of torture which many 
a martyr had to endure. 

"And when a subject who is fond of walking, and 
likes to go hither and thither, is forbidden to leave 
the monastery, when he is even told to remain 
quietly in his cell, it is the same as if, with holy vio- 
lence, his feet were made fast in the stocks, another 
torture inflicted on the martyrs. 

"When a Religious who is prone to curiosity 
closes his eyes that he may not behold the vain 
things of time and sense, he will receive the same 
recompense as the saints whose eyes were torn out 
by order of the cruel tyrants. And when one who 
has a tendency to indolence and loves to be at rest is 
made to work hard, if he obeys the orders given him 
in a docile spirit, he will receive the reward given 
to the holy martyrs, whose wrists were laden with 
chains and their limbs stretched upon the rack. 

"A virtuous and obedient brother ought therefore 



The Name Religious. 21 

to consider that his bodily powers are no longer his 
own to dispose of as he lists ; they are in the power 
of the Superior, to whom he has voluntarily sub- 
jected himself for the love of God, promising to 
conform in everything, even in his every undertak- 
ing, his every act, to w^hatever his Superior may or- 
dain for the good of his soul. By thus doing he will 
rank with the martyrs, he will receive the palm his 
patience has merited, and the crown of eternal life 
through the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord, who 
lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.'' 

Thus the devout a Kempis exhorts his novices. 
So excellent an instruction might well be enough 
for us ; but we can not forego the advantage of hear- 
ing what St. Francis de Sales says on this subject. 
The nuns who formed the first community of the 
Visitation have handed down to us in writing the 
following words from the lips of their holy founder : 

''My desire for you, my dear daughters, is that 
you should be mortified; that you should live day 
and night in the spirit of interior sacrifice and com- 
plete abandonment to the will of God, which will 
serve you in the stead of disciplines, fasts, and hair- 
shirts. 

'The martyrs drank the sacred chalice of the Pas- 
sion at one draught; some in a single hour, others 
in two or three days, others again in the course of 
a month. As for ourselves, we may be martyrs and 
drink that chalice, not indeed in two or three days, 
but throughout the whole course of our life, by con- 
tinually mortifying ourselves as all monks and nuns 
do, as it behooves those to do whom God has called 
to enter Religion with the intention of bearing His 
cross, of being crucified with Him. Is not this, in 
very deed, the greatest of martyrdoms — ^never to do 
one's own will, constantly to submit one's own judg- 



22 The Name Religious. 

ment to that of others, to flay one's heart, to empty 
it of all manner of impure affections, of all that is 
not God; to live, not in accordance with one's own 
fancies and inclinations, but in accordance with rea- 
son, in accordance with the divine will? That is a 
martyrdom which is all the more meritorious be- 
cause it is a slow, a lifelong martyrdom. But if we 
persevere, and are faithful to our vocation, when it 
is ended we shall obtain a glorious crown after hav- 
ing crucified ourselves with Our Lord by the un- 
flinching suppression of all within us which might 
be displeasing in His sight; and in order to stimu- 
late us to this, to encourage us in it. He vouchsafes 
to prove to us that He died for love of us. While 
still hanging on the cross, He permitted a soldier 
to wound His side with a spear, and pierce His 
Sacred Heart, so that it might be seen that He was 
really dead, and that He died of love, the love of His 
Sacred Heart for man." 

Such are St. Francis' words. We do not know 
of any other founder of an Order who laid so much 
stress on the necessity of life as a victim in the re- 
ligious state as did the saintly founder of the Visita- 
tion. His spiritual daughters know this ; and they 
do not forget that the subject which he proposed in 
the Book of Customs for their meditation on the 
eve of their profession is this : ''The Flaying Alive 
of the Victim." What rigor this displays, united 
to what incomparable gentleness !* 

*From The Spirit of Sacrifice, 



The Name Religious. 23 

E\it Sierms Heli'sfon, JEleliflious, tjc €:onbent, Haura, ^scetae» 
if^onfe, Kun, a£leliflfous <!^ttrets» 

RELIGION — RELIGIOUS. 

Y^ HE word ''religion'' is often used in a technical 
^^ sense by Catholic writers, to denote the virtue 
which deals with giving to God the honor which is 
His due. St. Xhomas looks upon it as a part of the 
virtue of justice. God is the supreme Lord of all; 
all other beings are entirely dependent upon Him. 
Man, by his reason, can know this dignity of God 
and his own dependence upon God. He is there- 
fore bound to acknowledge this dignity and depen- 
dence; to adore, praise, and thank his Creator, and 
to ask Him for all that he stands in need of. These 
acts of homage are paid chiefly by prayer and 
sacrifice. 

Religion is sometimes used in a still narrower 
sense to designate the state of those who have en- 
tirely devoted themselves to God by the three vows 
of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Hence the vari- 
ous Religious Orders are styled ''Religious/' 
Trench"*" infers from this use of the word that monks 
and nuns are the only "religious" people among 
Catholics. St. Thomas long ago met this objection 
in a way that should commend itself to a writer on 
language. "A name common to many things is 
sometimes appropriated to that one to which it emi- 
nently belongs ; as, for example, Rome is often 
called 'the city.' Now, religion is the virtue by 
which a man does something for the service and 
worship of God. And, therefore, they are said, by 
antonomasia, to be Religious who have devoted 
themselves entirely to the service of God, offering, 
as it were, a holocaust to Him." 

"^Study of Words, p. 9. 



24 The Name Religious. 

THE CONVENT '^LAURAS." 

The hermitages and "lauras" of the first ages 
gradually gave place to the cenobite mode of life; 
only in the Orders of Chartreuse and Camaldoli has 
the solitary life been partially retained to this day. 
Monachism was firmly planted in Western Europe 
by St. Benedict of Aniane in the ninth century, and 
from that time the name conventus — -Applied alike to 
comrriunities of men and women living under a Rule 
and practicing the evangelical counsels — came into 
common use. 

Different Orders preferred different sites for 
their convents. The Culdees of lona chose islands 
or lonely spots, removed from the beaten tracks of 
trade and travel; this pious instinct is attested by 
the position of lona, Lindisfarne, and old Melrose. 
The Benedictines were said to prefer hillsides ; the 
Cistercians chose quiet valleys ; the mendicant Or- 
ders, who depended on alms, and made preaching 
one of the great aims of their institution, repaired 
to the cities and towns. The Society of Jesus, as a 
rule, is found in cities : 

Bernardiis valles, montes Benedictus amabat, 
Oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes. 

The parts of a convent are: i. The church; 2, 
The choir, viz.^ that portion of the church in which 
the members say the daily Office; 3, The chapter- 
house, a place of meeting in which the Rule is read, 
elections made, and community busmess discussed; 
4, The cells; 5, The refectory (in old English, 
fraitoiir^ or f rater) ; 6, The dormitory ; 7, The in- 
firmary ; 8, The parlor, for the reception of visitors ; 
9, The library; 10, The treasury; 11, The cloister; 
12, The crypt. 

The legislation on convents forms a large and im- 



The Name Religious. 25 

portant section of canon law. Among the chief 
regulations is the law of enclosure, which ''separates 
the convent from the world by the prohibition or 
restriction of intercourse from without." 

The ''laura'' (Greek Xavpa), properly an alley 
or lane, was an aggregation of separate cells, ten- 
anted by monks, "under the not very strongly de- 
fined control of a Superior." * Usually each monk 
had a cell to himself, but in the ''laura" of 
Pachomius one cell was assigned to three monks. 
For five days in the week the tenants of the ''laura" 
remained in their cells, living on bread and water, 
and working at basket-making, or some similar em- 
ployment; on the Saturday and Sunday they took 
their meals together in the common refectory, and 
worshiped God in the common church. The dis- 
cipline of the ''laura" was a kind of intermediate 
stage between the eremitical life of St. Antony and 
the monasticism founded by St. Basil and St. Bene- 
dict. It flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries 
in the desert country near the Jordan; St. Euthy- 
mius, St. Sabbas, and the abbot Gerasimus were its 
chief types and promoters. St. Euthymius lived to 
be ninety-six years old; just before he died he told 
the person whom the monks had designated as his 
successor that it was the will of God that the 
"laura" should be turned into a monastery, as if 
foreseeing that this was the discipline of the future 
for the more perfect souls.f 

THE ASCET^. 

In regard to the '"ascetse" (Greek dcXKeoj^ 
daKrfTTi^) it was the belief that through bodily 

"^Dictionary of Christian Antiq. 

tFleury, livr. xxviii., xxix., xxx. ; Smith and Cheetham. 



26 The Name Religious. 

"exercise/' and a strict discipline imposed on the 
senses, it was in the power of man to perfect his 
moral nature and rise to spiritual heights not other- 
wise attainable. This belief had been common 
both among the Jews and pagans for some time be- 
fore the coming of Christ. Philo's account of the 
Essenes is well known — a Jewish sect of mystical 
and ascetic tenets, much diffused in Palestine in the 
first century before Christ, with its initiations, 
grades, and secrets, living in villages because of 
the luxury and immorality of the towns, renouncing 
marriage, and following rules of strict temperance 
in regard to food, sleep, and whatever else nature 
craves. The Therapeutae in Egypt were a similar 
sect. Their name and that of the Essenes is said to 
have the same meaning, signifying healing, for they 
believed that their discipline healed the concretam 
labem of the soul's impurity. 

In the pagan world similar doctrines were widely 
held by the Stoics. Both among them and the Es- 
senes the doctrine of the two principles, the per- 
suasion that matter was essentially evil, and that he 
was most perfect who was freest from the blasting- 
touch of animal existence, colored largely both their 
theories and their practices. The Christian ascetes 
could not so deem of that fleshly nature of which 
Christ, their divine Lord, had deigned to be a par- 
taker : to master the lower nature was their aim, 
not to eradicate it; desire and fear, joy and grief, 
they did not regard as in themselves evil, but as to 
be brought by discipline into a strict subordination 
to the true end of man, which is to know and love 
God, and to do His will. The means which they 
employed were voluntary chastity, fasting, perse- 
verance in prayer, voluntary poverty, and macera- 



The Name Religious. 27 

tion of the flesh. In the Apostolical Constitutions* 
the '"ascetse" are mentioned as an intermediate order 
of Christians between the clergy and the laity. As 
a general rule, they did not go out of the world, 
like anchorites and monks, but strove to live a 
perfect Hfe in the world. Abuses after a time 
appeared, particularly in regard to the yvvaltce^ 
avveiaatcroiy women who lived under the same 
roof with ascetes for the benefit of their instructions 
and example. 

Modern life, especial!}' when permeated with 
Baconian ideas respecting the true task of man in 
the world, is pointedly unascetic. If we turn over a 
series of pictures of eminent modern men, there is 
one common feature w^hich we can not fail to no- 
tice, whether the subject of the picture be artist, 
literary man, or man of action, and whatever intelli- 
gence, power, or benevolence may breathe from the 
face — namely, the absence of an expression of self- 
mastery. 

MONK AND NUN. 

The ascetics of the first Christian age have been 
described ('"ascetse"). They did not, as a rule, 
separate themselves from men, but practiced a rigid 
mortification in the world, and aimed at fulfilling the 
counsels of perfection. ]\Ionachism commenced in 
Egypt. In the middle of the third century the per- 
secution of Decius caused 'many fervent Christians 
to leave the cities and flee into the deserts, there to 
find that freedom in the divine service which human 
laws denied them. For a long time they lived apart, 
each in his own cell, supporting themselves by daily 
labor. Thus the term monk (Anglo-Saxon mtmuc, 
through the Latin monachus, Greek ^ovax^^) 
''solitary"). The anchorites or hermits were those 

*Krau5, p. 96. 



28 The Name Religious. 

who specially desired solitude ; of these St. Paul was 
the founder. St. Antony, whose life embraces more 
than a hundred years (250-356), chose for a time 
absolute solitude, but in his later years he allowed a 
number of disciples to gather round him, who, 
though living each apart, were eager to profit by the 
depth and wisdom of his advice, and ready to prac- 
tice whatever rules he might impose. Thus St. An- 
tony was the founder of monachism, although the 
cenobitic life, which has been a characteristic of 
nearly all the monks of later times, had not yet ap- 
peared. Of this, St. Pachomius is regarded as the 
originator, who, about a,d. 315, built monasteries in 
the Thebaid. It is easy to conceive how the com- 
mon life should appear, under given conditions, 
more suitable as a road to perfection than the sepa- 
rate life. How one might pass into the other may 
be seen from a passage in the ''Orations'' of St. 
Gregory Nazianzen.'*' Speaking of St. Athanasius 
taking refuge with the contemplatives of Egypt, 
who, ''withdrawing themselves from the world, and 
embracing the wilderness, live to God,'' he says that, 
of these, "some, practicing a life absolutely solitary 
and unsocial, converse with themselves and God 
alone, knowing no more of the world than they can 
become acquainted with in the deserts; others, lov- 
ing the law of charity by way of intercourse, at once 
men of solitude and men of society, while dead to all 
other men and to worldly affairs in general . . . 
are a world to one another, and by comparison and 
contact sharpen one another's virtue." Hilarion, a 
disciple of St. Antony, is said to have been the first 
to introduce communities of monks in Palestine ; 
Eustathius of Sebaste, in Armenia; St. Basil, in 
Cappadocia. St. Athanasius, by making known at 

*0r. 21. 



The Name Religious, ' 29 

Rome the story of the wonderful Hfe of St. Antony, 
is said to have caused a great movement toward 
monasticism. In the time of St. Jerome the city had 
many monasteries both of monks and nuns. St. 
Martin was a strenuous upholder of the cenobitic 
life ; two celebrated French monasteries, Marmou- 
tier, near Tours, and Liguge, near Poitiers, were of 
his foundation. The Rule of St. Augustine was 
perhaps rather designed for regular clerks than for 
monks, who for a long time after their institution 
were all laymen. At first it was nearly true that 
every monastery followed its own Rule; gradually, 
however, the Rule of St. Basil (BasiHans) obtained 
a preference, and, after its translation into Latin by 
Rufinus of Aquileia, was largely adopted in the 
West. Monachism languished in Italy in the fifth 
century, owing to the irruptions of the barbarians ; 
in the sixth (529) the strong but gentle hand of St. 
Benedict of Nursia raised it to a pedestal from 
which it has never since been dethroned (Bene- 
dictines). The Benedictine Rule gradually swal- 
lowed up all the others, being found more suitable 
than any to the conditions of life in Western Eu- 
rope. For several centuries no other Rule was 
heard of. In the tenth and eleventh centuries the 
Orders of Cluny, Camaldoli, the Chartreuse, and 
Citeaux, branched off from the parent stem. In the 
thirteenth century appeared the friars, Franciscans, 
Dominicans ; in the sixteenth, the Jesuits, Theatines, 
and other regular clerks ; followed down to our own 
day by the various congregations of both sexes, the 
members of which, under their several institutes, de- 
vote themselves to the glory of God and the good of 
their neighbor. 

A nun (Latin nonna) is a maid or widow who 
has consecrated herself to God by the three vows of 



30 The Name Religious. 

poverty, chastity, and obedience, and bound herself 
to live in a convent under a certain Rule. From the 
fifth century nonnus and nonna occur pretty fre- 
quently m relation to monks and nuns, a sense of 
quasi-filial respect being attached to the words. 
Compare the Greek vdvva, aunt, and the Italian 
nonno and it onna/ grandfather and grandmother. 

It may be stated as a general fact, applicable to 
nearly all the great Orders of men, that, soon after 
the foundation of each, an Order of women, subject 
to or in connection with it, was established, in which 
the Rule and statutes of the founder were, so far as 
the difference of sex permitted, punctually observed. 
Even the Society of Jesus is not an exception, for 
although the founder obtained a prohibition from 
the Pope against the company's undertaking the di- 
rection of nuns, the ''Dames Anglaises," and several 
more recent institutes, though not otherwise con- 
nected with the Society, follow the Rule of St. 
Ignatius. 

If we consider the four principal monastic Rules 
separately, we find that : 

a. The Rule of St. Basil (Basilians) was the ba- 
sis of that framed by Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, 
for the Order of Mount Carmel (Carmelites), and 
adopted in its original rigor by St. Teresa for the 
Order of Discalced Carmelites w^hich she founded 
in 1562. 

b. The Rule of St. Augustine is followed by 
communities of nuns annexed to every Congrega- 
tion of Augustine canons and hermits; also by 
Dominican nuns and the Ursulines. All, or nearly 
all, the communities of women founded since the 
Council of Trent follow the Rule of St. Augus- 
tine but have in addition a body of constitutions 
or customs suited to their special end and spirit, 



The Name Religious. 31 

and, in some cases, taken from the Rule of St. 
Ignatius. 

c. The Rule of St. Benedict is followed by the 
nuns of Camaldoli, Vallombrosa, and Fontevrault.'*' 

d. The Rule of St. Francis of Assisi is embraced 
by the Order of nuns called Poor Clares, founded 
by St. Clare ; this is the second order of St. Francis. 

The nuns of St. Jerome follow a Rule found in 
the works of that doctor ; the nuns of the Visitation 
(1610), one given them by St. Francis de Sales; it 
is the Rule of St. Augustine with a number of slight 
modifications. 

RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 

The conception of Orders of monks did not arise 
so long as every monastery was an independent en- 
tity, managing its own affairs without reference to 
any other authority but the general law of the 
Church. Beda speaks of monasteries following the 
Rule of St. Benedict, but he never speaks of the 
Order of St. Benedict. It was only when, com- 
mencing in the tenth century, separate communities, 
such as those of Cluny, Citeaux, and the Chartreuse, 
were formed within the great Benedictine brother- 
hood, and these communities, however widely scat- 
tered, submitted to the rule of a single superior 
(usually the abbot of the mother house), and met 
periodically in order to settle their common affairs, 
that the term ''Order'' came into use. A completely 
new Order — the Trinitarians — was founded by St. 
John of Matha toward the close of the twelfth cen- 
tury for the redemption of Christians held in cap- 
tivity by the infidels. The institution of Our Lady 
of Mercy, founded (12 18) by St. Peter Nolasco as 
an order of chivalry, but afterward transformed into 

*See Helvot. 



32 The Name Religious, 

a religious order, had the same end in view. Early 
in the thirteenth century the mendicant Orders — 
Franciscan, Dominican, and Carmelite friars — were 
either founded or came into distinct prominence ; 
in the second half of the century they were joined by 
the Augustinian friars. These four Orders, having 
no landed property, but subsisting on alms, preached 
in all parts of Europe — but especially in cities, 
where luxury and civic pride were beginning to 
show themselves — the humbling and fortifying 
doctrines of the cross. The Servites, founded by 
seven merchants of Florence and propagated by St. 
Philip Beniti, after a struggling existence of more 
than two centuries, were recognized by Innocent 
VIII. (1487) as a fifth mendicant Order, with privi- 
leges in all respects equal to those of the other four. 
The Jeronymites and Brigittines were founded in 
the fourteenth century. The founder of the Minims 
(1473), a fiUation of the Order of St. Francis, was 
St. Francis of Paula. 

The movement of the Reformation, of which the 
mainspring was the rebellion of man's lower, against 
the restraints imposed upon it by his higher, nature, 
was met on the Catholic side partly by direct antag- 
onism, partly by argument, and partly by the reas- 
sertion, under new forms adapted to the altered cir- 
cumstances of the time, of the unchanging Christian 
ideal of the moral and religious end of man. And 
since the spirit of the Church is most clearly seen 
in the Religious Orders, it was to be expected that 
the conflict with Protestantism would fall to a large 
extent into the hands of men bound by the three 
vows. The Society of Jesus (1540) opposed to the 
indiscipline and license of Protestantism a more 
rigid and unquestioning obedience to authority than 
had yet been known in the Church. The Theatines 



The Name Religious. 33 

(1524), Capuchins (1528), and Barnabites (1533) 
were founded in order to wage war against the cor- 
ruption of morals which prevailed, and to promote 
the religious education of the people. The Dis- 
calced Carmelites, men and women (1580, 1563), 
practiced the full austerities prescribed by the origi- 
nal Rule. In the following century an austere re- 
form of the Cistercian Order was established in the 
monastery of La Trappe (Trappists) by Dom 
Armand de Rancy (1662). 

In the Middle Ages, when the power of law was 
still weak, and society was often agitated by un- 
punished acts of turbulence and injustice, the sight 
of the peaceful and orderly life of a monastery, 
spent in a round of ceaseless prayer, praise, and 
study, was by very contrast deeply refreshing and 
stimulative to the higher characters among the laity. 
But when in process of time the *'reign of law'' was 
firmly established, this contrast lost much of its 
sharpness and, so far as immunity from illegal vio- 
lence was concerned, ceased to exist. It was there- 
fore fitting that religious society, in order to main- 
tain its ground in advance of civil, and not only 
"allure to brighter worlds," but also ''lead the way," 
should produce new manifestations of the old en- 
deavor after perfection. Coming forth from the 
cloister into the world, but still not of the world, the 
religious life has sanctified and embraced all those 
varied activities which have the relief of human suf- 
fering, and the dispelling of that ignorance which is 
an obstacle to salvation, as their end. Hence has 
arisen the multitude of Congregations which adorn 
the Catholic Church of our own day.* 

*From The Catholic Dictionary, 



CHAPTER IV. 

^be (Brace ot IDocatfon to tbe IReltgfoua State* 

'T^ eligious may praise the Lord in the words 
'^-\3 of the IsraeHtes when, freed from the tyranny 
of Pharao, they departed from Egypt: ''In Thy 
mercy Thou hast been a leader to the people which 
Thou hast redeemed : and in Thy strength Thou 
hast carried them to Thy holy habitation" (Exod. 
XV. 13). As the Jews in the Old Law were the be- 
loved people of God, and thus distinguished from 
the Egyptians, so in the New Law Religious are dis- 
tinguished from people of the world. As the Jews 
were led out of Egypt, a land of discord and slav- 
ery, in which God was not known, so have ReHgious 
abandoned the world in which God is so little 
known, and which rewards its servants with sorrow 
and misery. As the Jews were led by a pillar of 
fire into the Promised Land, so Religious are guided 
by the light of the Holy Ghost into that blessed 
state, which is a foretaste of the heavenly country. 

The supereminent advantages of the religious 
state are well set forth by St. Bernard when he ex- 
claims : 'Ts it not in the holy religious state that one 
lives more purely, falls less frequently, rises more 
easily, walks more securely, is more plentifully en- 
dowed with grace, dies more confidently, is purified 
more quickly, and is rewarded more richly?'' 

That the Religious may clearly understand her 
obligation to thank God for the grace of her voca- 
tion, we shall enumerate some of the benefits at- 
tached to it. Of the verse : '*When he came out of 
the land of Egypt, he heard a tongue which he knew 
not. He removed his back from the burdens'' 



The Grace of Vocation to the Religious State. 35 

(Ps. Ixxx. 6), St. Jerome says: ''The great grace 
signified is that which the Lord gave to the Re- 
Hgious whom He freed from Egypt, that is, from 
the world/' St. Augustine refers to the sacrifice 
of Abraham as a symbol of the complete self-immo- 
lation to which Religious are called in the service of 
God and in the imitation of Christ. Abraham's ob- 
lation consisted of a cow, a she-goat, a ram, a turtle- 
dove, and a pigeon. The four-footed animals, 
beasts chained to the earth and typifying the sensual 
and the worldly, he divided and cut into many 
pieces. ''But the birds he divided not" (Gen. xv. 
10), but offered them whole in sacrifice. By the 
turtle-doves, those gentle and harmless creatures, 
are signified spiritual men. Religious, who love soli- 
tude and live apart from intercourse with others. 
By the pigeons also are symbolized those who 
strive after perfection, although they pursue piety 
in the midst of men and of worldly occupations. 
The doves that are sacrificed to the Lord are not 
divided. Religious dedicate themselves whole and 
entire to the service of God. To this they are called 
by divine grace. They make an absolute sacrifice 
of themselves to God. They are pure holocausts. 
They have only to aim, day by day, at following the 
Lord more closely. 

"Behold, now, bless ye the Lord, all the servants 
of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in 
the courts of the house of our God" (Ps. cxxxiii. i). 
In relation to these words St. Jerome says that a 
worldly master has many who serve him, though 
in very different ways. Some are always around 
him in the house, others are occupied outdoors. So 
the Lord our God has different servants. Some stay 
in His house before His eyes and serve Him, but 
others are outside in the busy world. Religious are 



36 The Grace of Vocation to the Religious State. 

they who are always in the house of the Lord. 
They stand before His face and may converse with 
Him quite freely. They are God's domestics; they 
who live in the world are His field-servants. 

The Lord bestows an exceedingly great grace in 
taking a soul from the world, and placing her in 
religious solitude. But very blind are they who 
imagine that everything is done when they leave the 
world and enter Religion. They have, indeed, re- 
ceived a magnificent grace from God, for which they 
are bound to be ever grateful ; but that is only the 
beginning of a long chain of graces with which they 
must cooperate by serving Him with love and ardor. 
They have not chosen God ; He has chosen them 
without any merit of theirs, yes, in spite of their 
actual demerits. 

A true Religious must give herself entirely to 
God, strive after solid virtue and perfection, and 
never consider herself safe from the attacks of the 
evil one. 



CHAPTER V. 

/Reane ot Salvation In tbe l?cligiou0 State. 

"7^ HAT the Religious may better understand the 
^^ great grace of vocation, we shall touch upon 
the manifold advantages by which she may easily 
and quickly reach the highest perfection. 

Among the means of salvation afforded by the re- 
ligious life may be mentioned first of all its sweet 
solitude, its silence and retirement; then the holi- 
ness of its occupations, its written Rules, its sacred 
customs, its poverty, chastity, and obedience, the 
good example, which stimulates emulation, the pious 
practices, the nameless graces that flow from these, 
the numerous spiritual exhortations and instruc- 
tions, the zeal of Superiors which spurs all on — - 
in one word, everything in the cloister tends to for- 
ward the salvation and perfection of all those shel- 
tered within its sacred precincts. 

First, consider the silence and solitude of the 
cloister. Not in the throngs of men, not in the tur- 
moil of the world, will God treat with His chosen 
souls, open their spiritual eyes, fill them with heav- 
enly light, and gladden them with His special favors. 
No, God chooses solitude for this. 'T will lead her 
into solitude, and I will speak to her heart" (Osee ii. 
14), says the Lord. The solitude for which Al- 
mighty God has special preference is that of the 
cloister, the gate of salvation. Here reigns un- 
broken peace. Here the angry waves of earthly 
cares are never heard. Here is the school of holy 
instruction, in which the Lord Himself is the 
Teacher. Here in silence and retirement He builds 



38 Means of Salvation in the Religious State, 

up and strengthens His beloved ones. The cloister 
is the chosen place into which God gathers His souls 
of predilection in order to unite Himself to them 
most tenderly. It is a lovely paradise, like to that 
of our first parents. It is even superior to it, be- 
cause in that an innocent man became sinful, where- 
as the cloister makes the sinful innocent and holy. 
It is the center, the element of holy souls. There 
they taste heavenly delights, and commune with 
their God in peace and love. 

The second means of salvation in the religious 
state consists in the holiness of its occupations. 
From a religious community all low and worldly 
pursuits are banished. All self-seeking, all terres- 
trial gains are subordinated to the goods of eternity 
and charity. Here a man is, indeed, engrossed in 
labor and prayer, but his thoughts and aims are far 
from those of the children of the world, whose ener- 
gies are directed and expended in the anxious quest 
of honor, wealth, and pleasure. Traffic is unknown 
here. There is no disquietude about outside affairs 
and social demands. No vexing family cares, no 
anxious thoughts in regard to one's support and 
one's environment are engendered in the cloister. 
In short, all is holy, all tends to the majesty of the 
Lord who is served therein. The soul abandons 
itself to His dominion, meditates on His adorable 
grandeur and power, sings His praises, thanks Him 
for His benefits, averts the divine anger from sin- 
ners, casts itself without care into His arms and on 
His Heart, and hopes, in His mercy, to be eternally 
united to Him. The cloister reproduces the life of 
the saints in heaven. The cloister is the paradise of 
earth. 

The third means of salvation in the religious life 
lies in the established Rules of the Order. Bv the 



Means of Salvation in the Religious State. 3q 

Rules of an Order one aims at two things, namely, 
the choosing of good and the rejection of evil. 
Man, constantly influenced by his passions, easily 
forgets duties irksome to depraved nature. It is, 
therefore, most necessary for him to be reminded of 
them, spurred on, and encouraged to their fulfil- 
ment. 

This is done by the conventual Rules, kept in full 
vigor by the watchfulness of Superiors. There is 
not one of them that does not continually place some 
duty before the eyes of the Religious. The holy 
Fathers compare the Rules to the wings of birds 
and to the wheels of a chariot. The wings, they say, 
are no burden, no hindrance to the bird ; on the con- 
trary, they help it to rise in the air and fly. Neither 
do wheels retard the chariot by their weight. They 
serve to set it in motion and to keep it moving. 
They lighten and facilitate the labor of the horses 
harnessed to it. Without wheels, they would not be 
able to draw one-half the weight, but with' them 
their work becomes play. So is it wnth the Rules. 
Far from being a burden or a hindrance to Re- 
ligious, they are wings by which they rise to heaven ; 
they are the wheels which help them to carry the 
yoke of the Lord with admirable facility, that sweet 
yoke w^hich worldlings drag with sighs and groans. 

The religious Rules are, moreover, a powerful 
protection against sin. The Rule guards the Reli- 
gious in all his ways, w^atches over the gates of the 
senses, moderates the desires, restrains excesses, bars 
the avenues to evil suggestions, and protects the soul 
from the attacks of the demon. The holy Fathers 
compare the Rule to a fortification. A city, they 
say, is in the best state of defence when outer forti- 
fications correspond wath inner means of security. 
By them the enemy will be kept ofif and his power 



40 Means of Salvation in the Religious State. 

nullified. So, too, Religious are protected by their 
holy Rules. By them they are able to resist the 
attacks of the devil, because they accord with the 
Commandments of God and those of the Church. 
The power of the evil one is weakened by the Rules, 
for they disrupt the union which exists between him 
and the passions. 

The fourth means of salvation in the religious life 
is contained in poverty, chastity, obedience, morti- 
fication, and self-denial. Riches are the greatest 
hindrance to salvation. The rich man is occupied 
with self and engrossed in selfish pursuits. Forget- 
ful of heaven and eternity, he shuns neither trouble 
nor labor to increase his riches. His heart is divided 
between God and creatures, and most often do the 
latter entirely possess it. The Saviour Himself has 
declared with what difficulty a rich man enters the 
kingdom of heaven. Poverty of spirit confines the 
wants and the desires of man to the most necessary 
things, subjugates concupiscence, moderates the 
yearning after perishable goods, makes it easy for 
the heart to adhere to God exclusively, and to hope 
in Him for assistance in every trial. 

Chastity frees the soul from the servitude of the 
senses, leads to its undivided sacrifice to God, and 
renders its flight to Him swift and delightful. 
Obedience binds irrevocably to God, and makes man 
an inexpressibly pleasing holocaust to heaven. 
Lastly, mortification masters concupiscence and 
creates man, so to say, to a new life full of holi- 
ness and perfection. 

The fifth means is found in the good example af- 
forded by the religious life. There are in the clois- 
ter none of those scandals which in the world insin- 
uate their secret poison into the soul through the 
eyes and the ears, and deposit therein the germ of 



Means of Salvation in the Religious State. 41 

death. No, in the peaceful seclusion of the cloister, 
the eyes and the ears may open fearlessly. They 
rest only on the most beautiful examples of virtue, 
they hear only what is elevating, peaceful, and holy. 
As there is nothing more injurious than scandal, so 
there is nothing more beneficial than good example. 
How many thousands among the first Christians 
were converted from their worship of idols by the 
example of the saints ! Did not Jesus Christ and 
His apostles, by their example, produce an impres- 
sion that prepared the way for their preaching? 
The cloister is full of examples that lead to sanctity. 
The sixth means may be summed up in the holy 
practices and pious exercises of the convent. How 
many such exercises and customs form the daily 
routine of the religious life ! Pious meditations in 
which, absorbed in the eternal truths, and nestling 
in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Religious lovingly 
evokes the holiest affections and the most generous 
resolutions. Therein the soul is enlightened by 
heavenly inspirations, strengthened by the grace of 
God and inflamed with His love. Walking with 
God in this earthly paradise, and conversing almost 
uninterruptedly with Him, places her duties before 
her in their full extent, helps her faithfully to fulfil 
them, and animates her to unflagging progress. 
Her heartfelt repentance washes away her faults, 
and prepares her for new and richer graces. By 
frequent confession she is purified from sin, receives 
wise instruction, prudent direction in the way of 
perfection, and new courage to struggle against the 
enemy of her soul. In the almost daily holy com- 
munion she is intimately united with her divine 
Bridegroom, strengthened against her own weak- 
ness, urged on to greater fervor and sanctity, in- 
tmdated with sweetest consolation, and blessed with 



42 Means of Salvation in the Religious State. 

the pledge of immortality. In the holy sacrifice of 
the Mass she takes part in the work of Redemption 
there daily renewed. Lastly, by means of daily 
spiritual reading, her mind is provided with whole- 
some lessons in piety and asceticism, while her heart 
is inflamed with charity by the sublime examples of 
sanctity that are held up to her as models, so that 
she may easily and securely reach perfection. 

If we add to the foregoing the counsels of en- 
lightened directors and the wise admonitions of Su- 
periors, we must conclude that the religious state 
ofifers, in abundance, all means necessary for per- 
fection. 



CHAPTER VI. 

aovantages ot tbe IReli^lous State. 

/^ioD abundantly dispenses His richest graces to 
^^ the ReHgioiis. Obstacles to her sanctification 
are thereby easily removed, and she is endued with 
special strength and joy to persevere in her efforts 
after virtue and perfection. If all this were fully 
comprehended, religious obedience would not ap- 
pear so difficult, and greater numbers would aban- 
don the world in the desire of possessing the 
precious advantages of the cloister. Yes, those rich 
graces which God pours upon the Religious not only 
extract all bitterness from her life, but impart to it 
singular sweetness. 

Divine Providence never ceases to supply man 
wath the grace and strength to fulfil the duties of his 
vocation. Here we find an essential difference be- 
tween God and worldly rulers. While the latter 
grant their favorites offices and employments with- 
out regard to their requirements and qualifications 
for them, yea, sometimes even despite th^ir known 
unworthiness. Almighty God is ever mindful of 
bestowing the necessary graces for the state and 
work to which He has called a soul. When the 
Lord called Peter and Andrew from their fishing- 
nets to the priestly office of the apostolate. He said 
to them : ''Come ye after Me, and I will make you 
to be fishers of men'' (Matt. iv. 19), which means : 
I will give you the grace necessary for your calling. 
In like manner did God act toward Moses when He 
sent him to Pharao to demand permission to lead 
the chosen people out of Egypt. Moses hesitated to 



44 Advantages of the Religious State. 

discharge the commission, and said : ''Who am I 
that I should go to Pharao, and should bring 
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? They 
will not believe me when I say : The Lord has ap- 
peared to me/' 'T will be with thee/' answered the 
Lord. Moses again objected: ''Lord, I am not elo- 
quent, and I have a slow tongue/' But the Lord 
replied : "Behold I have appointed thee the God of 
Pharao" (Exod. vii. i). Moses' power over 
Pharao was such as God Himself possessed. 
Grace is always proportioned to the importance and 
sublimity of the duties imposed. 

What sight more sublime than that of a soul, 
called by Almighty God, turning her back on the 
wgrld and seeking the cloister, there to serve the 
Lord forever in the spirit of self-sacrifice? Such a 
sight merits greater admiration and commendation 
than that of a general leading armies to the assault 
and conquest of strong cities. Great indeed is the 
victory of those who enter Religion. In both body 
and soul do the wonderful effects of divine grace 
appear. In Egypt the first-born were slain. In the 
soul of the Religious are slain, by the sword of mor- 
tification and obedience, all the first-born, namely, 
self-will, self-love, and all other inordinate incHna- 
tions. In the sea of self-sacrificing pursuits and 
penitential works are buried love of parents and 
relatives and the longing after the honors and 
pleasures of the world. In respect to the body, it 
is well-known that many who, while in the world, 
suffered almost constantly from physical ailments, 
were, on their retreat into the cloister, freed from 
all sickness. They who once were satisfied with 
none but choice and dainty dishes, now wish noth- 
ing better than the poor and simple food of the con- 
vent. Such are the effects of the grace which the 



Advantages of the Religious State. 45 

Lord bountifully bestows on Religious. To it alone 
must be ascribed the change that the soul expe- 
riences on leaving the world to enter the cloister. 

We have called the cloister an earthly paradise, 
and St. Augustine agrees with us in his explanation 
of the following passage of Holy Scripture : ''And 
the Lord God took man, and put him into the para- 
dise of pleasure, to dress it and to keep if' (Gen. ii. 
15). What does the Holy Scripture mean by these 
words? asks the saint. And he answers that God 
placed man in paradise to fulfil the commands 
which the Lord Himself had given him. By such 
obedience he would have retained the possession of 
that lovely abode, instead of losing it. Applying 
this to the religious life, ask yourself : Why has Al- 
mighty God put you in this paradise? That you 
should fulfil His commands and the evangelical 
counsels which the Rule makes a law for you. By 
your fidelity you are to guard and keep this paradise, 
which many have lost through folly and negligence. 
When a soul devotes herself to the spiritual state, 
we may justly say that she is born anew. She be- 
gins a better life when she forsakes the world to 
serve God. Therefore the Fathers call the taking 
of the vows a new birth, a spiritual regeneration, 
by which Almighty God gives to the soul His 
powerful grace, as He gave Eve to Adam for his 
helpmate in paradise. To this grace the soul must 
unreservedly' deliver herself, determined to corre- 
spond to the designs of divine Providence in her. 

Another reason why God lavishes His priceless 
graces on Religious is found in the words of Jesus 
to His disciples : ''Where there are two or three 
gathered together in My name, there am I in the 
midst of them'' (Matt, xviii. 20). All religious 
communities are gathered together in the name of 



46 Advantages of the Religions State. 

the Lord, because their manner of Ufe comes from 
God and is approved by the Holy See ; confirmed by 
the bond of mutual love, with the service of God 
alone for end and aim. In the midst of such souls, 
God is found with His special graces. If Jesus has 
promised His presence to two or three gathered to- 
gether in His name, what will He do where so many 
in community life have, as it were, but one heart 
and one soul? Truly, Religious are favored plants 
set in a fruitful soil upon which the heavenly dew 
is constantly falling. 

The innumerable graces of the religious life af- 
ford, as the saints say, a foretaste of heaven. 
Father Charles of Lothringen, a holy Jesuit of royal 
birth, used to say that one moment of the God-given 
peace which he tasted in his cell richly repaid him 
for all that he had left in the world. The joy that 
inundated his soul in that little cell was at times so 
great that he was forced to leap in the exuberance 
of his joy. The Blessed Seraphine of Ascol, a Ca- 
puchin, declared that he would not exchange one 
inch of his hempen girdle for all the kingdoms of 
the world. When Arnulph, the Cistercian, com- 
pared the riches and honors of the court which he 
had forsaken with the consolation tasted in the 
cloister, he used to cry out : 'Tt is true, my Jesus ! 
Thou dost surely give the hundredfold which Thou 
dost promise to those that forsake all for Thee.'' 



CHAPTER VII. 

Zbc IRellaious Zvnl^ a JBriDe of Qbtiet : Zbc IRcliQiowB 
Iproteasiou tbe IRupiials mtb Qm XorD* 

IT would be difficult to enumerate all the gifts 
and graces that Almighty God lavishes on a 
true Religious. She is, as David says, that queen at 
the right hand of the Most High, ''clothed with a 
robe of gold set round with variety." She is, in- 
deed, richly adorned with proofs of the divine favor, 
but her highest prerogative consists in her title of 
bride of Christ. When a soul forsakes the world 
and consecrates herself to God she becomes a bride 
of the Redeemer, and may truly exclaim : ''God 
alone is my treasure, my only good!" The Re- 
ligious, on the day on which she is clothed with the 
holy habit, changes her name, thereby proclaiming 
that she is dead to the world, to live for Jesus alone, 
who died for her. The venerable Sister Frances 
Farnese knew no better means to urge on her Re- 
ligious than by reminding them that they were the 
brides of Jesus Christ. ''It is certain," said she, 
"that each of you has been chosen by God to become 
a saint, since He has honored you by making you 
His brides." 

St. Augustine says to souls consecrated to God : 
"If you do not yet recognize your happiness, reflect 
on vv^hat the saints have said on that subject. Re- 
member that you have a Bridegroom who is more 
beautiful than anything in heaven or on earth. 
What a proof of His love He has given you in 
choosing you to be His brides ! From this you 
should understand how you ought to respond to His 



48 The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ. 

love/' St Bernard says : "O beloved bride of 
Jesus Christ, think no more of self nor of the world ! 
Thou art no longer thine own, thou dost belong no 
more to the world, but to thy God, to whom thou 
hast consecrated thyself. Forget all else, and think 
only of pleasing and serving more faithfully the 
Bridegroom w^ho has chosen thee in preference to 
so many others/' 

When the world with its blandishments seeks to 
ensnare thy heart, O beloved of Jesus Christ, answer 
in the words of St. Agnes : ''Depart from me ; my 
heart belongs to God entirely and forever. Thou 
desirest my love, but I can love none other than 
Jesus Christ, my God, who first loved me." A Re- 
ligious speaks in the same strain on the day of her 
profession when the Bishop presents to her the veil : 
"My Bridegroom has covered my face with this veil 
that, neither seeing nor seen, I may suffer no other 
love to enter my heart save that of my Bridegroom 
Jesus Christ." 

Praising and exulting in the Lord, say to Him : 
'T have found Him whom my soul loveth. I will 
embrace Him with my love, and will never let Him 
go. My Beloved has given Himself entirely to me, 
and it is just that I should give myself entirely to 
Him." "My Beloved to me and I to Him" 
(Cant. ii. i6). 

The children of the world are accustomed to 
make grand preparations for a wedding, which they 
celebrate with magnificent ceremonies. At the nup- 
tials of the heavenly Bridegroom with the Religious, 
that is, at the solemnity of the religious vows, we 
behold similar preparations. In both cases we find, 
first, the irrevocable consent, given in presence of 
ecclesiastics and witnesses ; secondly, the mutual 
surrender of the two parties, one to the other; 



The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ. 49 

thirdly, the indissoluble bond and the sealed con- 
tract; fourthly, the separation and departure from 
parents and relatives. 

First, the irrevocable consent. A Religious 
chooses Christ for her Bridegroom when, in pres- 
ence of God's representative and her fellow-Sisters, 
she vows before the Lord to love none other than 
Him. And as in worldly marriages the contract is 
sealed by the expression : 'T will," so the Religious 
unites herself to Jesus Christ by the words : "I 
promise," or "I vow." Her consent is not forced, 
but voluntary; for, prior to admission to holy pro- 
fession, the novice is well instructed in the Rules 
and Constitutions according to which she makes her 
vows; she understands their extent and conse- 
quences even in the least details. At the end of her 
probation, she is perfectly free to choose between 
the religious state or that of the world. 

As regards the consent of the heavenly Bride- 
groom there can be not the least doubt. Tell me who 
called you to the religious state? Who chose you 
for the bride of Christ? Was it because of your 
prudence, your distinguished family, or your engag- 
ing manners ? O no ! The grace of God, regardless 
of your want of merit, descended upon you; God 
chose you for His bride in preference to many 
worthy souls. From God came those interior 
movements that urged you to forsake the world and 
give yourself to Him. That sermon which im- 
pelled you to the execution of your project; those 
salutary admonitions of your confessor, by which 
Almighty God offered you the dignity of the heav- 
enly nuptials; that interior strength and courage 
which you felt for the accomplishing of your good 
resolutions; that special light and consolation by 
which you tasted in advance the blissful union with 



50 The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ. 

your Beloved — all these came from on high. Do 
you ask for further signs and proofs of Almighty 
God's acceptance of your promise? Be assured that 
He was present at your profession, that He heard 
your vows as clearly as you can perceive His voice 
in your soul. If you still doubt His acceptance of 
your promises, recall the reward that He has 
promised those that choose Him instead of parents 
and brethren and all other things. ''Every one that 
hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
mother, or wife, of children, or lands for My 
name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and 
shall possess life everlasting'' (Matt. xix. 29). God 
Himself, eternal beatitude, is promised to those 
who, after their entrance into the cloister, live only 
for Christ our Lord. 

Secondly, the mutual surrender and acceptance. 
It follows from this agreement, or mutual consent, 
that Almighty God does actually take possession of 
the Religious, body and soul. St. Augustine, there- 
fore, calls religious profession a marriage which 
Christ celebrates with the soul, while she, by the 
vow of chastity, resigns to Him her person. This 
was the thought of that pious Religious who, when 
tempted by the impure spirit, used to say : ''Never 
more shall I open the gates to you. The citadel is 
already in the hands of another. I have given it 
over to God. I no longer have any command over 
it." St. John, in his Apocalypse, describes the joys 
in store for virgins : "No one can sing the canticle 
except those hundred and forty-four thousand who 
were purchased from the earth. The brides of the 
Lamb bear His name and His Father's name written 
on their forehead, and they follow the Lamb 
whithersoever He goes" (Apoc. xiv. i et seq.). 
Why do those virgins bear the name of the Lamb 



The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ. 51 

on their forehead ? To proclaim that Almighty God 
is their only Master. O how joyfully should a Re- 
ligious submit to her heavenly Bridegroom, ex- 
claiming with all her heart : 'T belong to God alone. 
He is my only Lord and Master !'' The spouse in 
the Canticles says : "Our bed is flourishing" 
(Cant. i. 15). The weary find their sweetest rest 
on their peaceful bed. And the Lord rests nowhere 
with greater delight than in the heart of His beloved 
bride whose only Lord He is. Jesus, the heavenly 
Bridegroom, the Lover of souls that surrender and 
sacrifice themselves to Him entirely, will not allow 
Himself to be outdone in generosity and devoted- 
ness ; He will not fail, on His part, to be their faith- 
ful defender and protector, to reward them with 
sweetest consolation and manifold graces for their 
self-sacrificing labors, to aid and encourage them in 
striving after perfection, to enrich them with His 
blessings, and finally to receive them into the man- 
sions of His heavenly Father, where they shall en- 
joy with Him that everlasting peace and happiness, 
of which the Apostle writes : ''Eye hath not seen 
nor ear heard, neither hath ijt entered into the heart 
of man, what things God hath prepared for them 
that love Him" (i Cor. ii. 9). 

Thirdly, the irrevocable contract of union. The 
Religious, by her profession, forms a contract with 
Almighty God that can not be dissolved. The bond 
of marriage is loosened only by death, as says St. 
Paul : ''A woman is bound by the law as long as her 
husband liveth : but if her husband die, she is at 
liberty" (i Cor. vii. 39). But the bond of love be- 
tween Christ and the soul is, on the contrary, not 
broken by death, but intensified and rendered infi- 
nitely sweeter by the blessed vision of the Beloved in 
heaven. The Prophet Osee foretold this : 'T will 



52 The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ. 

betroth thee to Me forever" (Osee ii. 19). The fol- 
lowing words of Holy Scripture apply very beau- 
tifully to the three vows of religion: ''A threefold 
cord is not easily broken" (Eccles. iv. 12). The 
soul is most intimately united to her Redeemer by 
the threefold cord of poverty, chastity, and obedi- 
ence. Well may she call that day blessed on which 
she laid the foundation of the religious life. She 
is bound by a lasting obligation. She can not aban- 
don the state into which she has entered by the 
vows. As long as life lasts, the tender union of love 
between her and her Beloved must remain uninter- 
rupted, and in heaven its sweetest fruits shall be 
enjoyed. 

Fourthly, the separation and departure from 
parents and relatives. The spouse of Christ volun- 
tarily abandons riches, social pleasures, worldly 
honors, home and relatives, in order to follow her 
Lord and to serve Him in the seclusion of the 
cloister, "in the courts of the house of our God." 
To the brides of Christ in particular may be applied 
the words of the Psalmist : ''Behold now bless ye 
the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, who stand in 
the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of 
our God" (Ps. cxxxiii. i). All God's servants are 
here called upon to praise Him : they who actually 
live in His house. His chosen ones, the elect of 
heaven, as also those that are standing in His courts. 
Religious souls, though not yet admitted to the 
celestial paradise, stand near to it. They are in the 
outer courts, and are privileged to receive the sweet- 
est heavenly favors. They live in constant union 
with their heavenly Bridegroom, although they are 
not yet actual residents of His celestial palace. To 
be more sure of being eternally united to Him, they 
have left father and mother, home and friends, and 



The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ. 53 

all that was nearest and dearest to them in the 
world. 

Perfect abandonment to the will of God is the 
characteristic of .the ideal Rehgious — the faithful 
spouse of Christ. Not alone with the mouth, but 
truly with her heart, must she utter the prayer : 
Fiat voluntas tiia! Let her make these reflections 
with Fra da Bergamo: ''The perfection at which I 
should aim is this : to keep the inclinations of sense 
within me subject to reason, and my human reason 
subject to the will of God. This one point gained 
embraces all ; therefore this shall be the object of my 
care.'' With Thomas a Kempis let her pray : ''O 
Lord, grant me always to will and desire that which 
is most acceptable to Thee and which pleaseth Thee 
best; let Thy will be mine, and let my will always 
follow Thine, and agree perfectly with it. Grant 
that I may die to all things that are in the. world, 
for Thy sake love to be despised and to be unknown 
in the world. Grant that I may rest in Thee, and 
that my heart may be at peace in Thee.'' 

Our Lord said one day to St. Mechtildis of her 
sister St. Gertrude : "I have united My heart so in- 
timately with hers, through the attractions of My 
mercy, that she has become one with Me. On this 
account she obeys Me so readily that the relation 
and harmony which exist between the members of 
the body and the will can not be more intimate than 
that which exists between Gertrude's soul and Mine. 
As the hands move without delay on the first im- 
pulse of the will, because they are entirely submis- 
sive to the dictates of the soul, and as the eyes open 
at once to obey, so does Gertrude attend to My pres- 
ence, that she may comply with My every purpose." 
O my Jesus, make me another St. Gertrude ! AH the 
powers of my soul long for Thee and desire nothing 



54 The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ. 

but Thee. All my desires fade into this one — to pos- 
sess Thee and shelter Thee in a loyal heart. Come, 
oh, come and dwell in Thy poor servant ! She longs 
for no other service, no other labor, than the unceas- 
ing occupation of living united with Thee and doing 
Thy adorable will. She implores Thee to deal with 
her as Thou hast done with Thy bride St. Gertrude, 
that her poor heart also, when once Thy throne and 
dwelling-place, may, in modest measure, be a place 
of rest and joy to Thee. 

O dear St. Gertrude! perfect spouse of Jesus 
Christ, remember the promise thou hast made to 
those who confide in thee. Pray that the love and 
the grace of God may always be with me. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

State ot pertectton : f)ow to 1Reco0nl3e location 
to tbe IRelicjioue %itc. 

^^^HE members of the Church have each and all 
^^ a work to do for God, but not every member 
of the Church has a vocation. A vocation is a call 
to a state of perfection. A state is a permanent 
position, by which one stands on a different footing 
from one's fellows in regard to liberty and right. 
The word is a term of the Roman lawyers. Perfec- 
tion is the love of God, and is not necessarily 
annexed to any state. The collier who loves God 
better is more perfect than the monk who loves Him 
less. But one state is more perfect than another 
state, inasmuch as it carries with it more engage- 
ments and more practices that either help to the love 
of God (as does the obligation of reciting the Divine 
Office), or remove obstacles to that love (as does 
the vow of poverty). A vocation is never obligatory 
under pain of sin to take up and accept ; it is the 
voice of God, not commanding, but counseling. 
''He that can take, let him take," says Our Lord 
in the nineteenth chapter of St. Matthew, which 
chapter is the authority in the Gospels for the doc- 
trine of vocation. All who enter on a state of per- 
fection enter uncommanded and unconstrained. The 
special militia of the Church, consisting of the 
priesthood and the regular Orders, is a volunteer 
army: there is no conscription; but volunteers have 
never failed, and never will : the love of Christ cruci- 
fied and of the Eucharistic Jesus is a motive upon 
the hearts of some of the youth of every generation. 



56 State of Perfection. 

In this the New Law differs from the Old: the 
Levites in the Old Law, by the mere fact of their 
being born of the tribe of Levi, were obliged to 
dedicate themselves to the service of the altar 
(Exod. ii. I ; iv. 14; Numb. iii. 5-12) : in the New 
Law it is not a question of birth, but of personal 
choice. A vocation is well described by St. Ignatius : 
*'A11 who have judgment and reason will offer them- 
selves entirely to labor : but they who shall wish to 
show greater loyalty, and to signalize themselves in 
the perfect service of their eternal King and univer- 
sal Lord, will not only offer themselves entirely to 
labor, . . . but will make offerings of greater value 
and greater moment.''* A vocation, then, is a special 
call from God to a state of higher perfection than 
that of ordinary Christians. This special call, 
wherever it takes effect, involves two things : a wish 
to follow the call, and fitness to follow it. The 
call is heard in the inward sanjctuary of the heart. 
The wish is not a desire of flesh and blood, but a 
grace from our "Father who is in heaven,'' often 
quite against the natural liking (Matt. xvi. 17, 23, 
24). At the first breathings of a vocation the young 
soul of the recipient is ''troubled at the speech," as 
was Mary at the voice of the angel : then it is bidden 
*'not to fear," for it has ''found grace with God" ; 
and that child is ''blessed" among all its playmates 
(Luke i. 28, 29, 30). Of fitness the person called is 
not the judge, but ecclesiastical and religious superi- 
ors, to whom he submits himself for probation and 
trial. It is a piece of Protestantism to scoff at voca- 
tions : we should at least praise God's gift, though 
not offered to ourselves. It is the glory of a large 
and happy Catholic family to produce a vocation. 

*Strictly, St. Ignatius is not describing a vocation here, 
but the readiness to accept a vocation, if giveti. 



State of Perfection. 57 

A sound Catholic is glad to have brother or sister, 
uncle or aunt or cousin, or child, who has ''pleased 
God, and is found no more" in the ordinary walks 
of life, ''because the Lord hath taken and translated 
him" to something higher and better (Gen. v. 24). 

As regards vocation to the religious life, ''though 
all in general who worship God may be called re- 
ligious," says St. Thomas, "the name is specially 
given to such as dedicate their entire lives to the 
worship of God; as the name of contemplatives is 
bestow^ed not simply on persons who contemplate, 
but on such as devote their whole lives to contem- 
plation." 

A Religious is one who devotes his whole life 
to God under a rule approved by the Church. Such 
a rule includes the three vows of poverty, chastity, 
and obedience ; and beyond that each several Order 
has its own prescribed way of life. 

This is the first benefit of a religious vocation, 
that one knows what to do with one's self, and has 
a regular method of living for God. "I do not won- 
der," said Dr. Johnson in the year 1761, "that where 
the monastic life is permitted, every Order finds 
votaries and every monastery inhabitants. Men will 
submit to any rule by which they may be exempted 
from the tyranny of caprice and of chance." Caprice 
and chance, it may be added, are the undoing of all 
efforts after piety. A second advantage is that, like 
Alpine climbers, religious men are roped together, so 
that every man is supported by the rest; and they 
have guides. In a religious house one is not lonely, 
not without counsel and direction. Nothing shows 
better how dear the Religious are to the heart of 
God than this, that to them above other men has 
gone down the legacy which Christ bequeathed to 
His disciples : "Ye shall be hated of all men for My 



58 State of Perfection. 

name's sake" ( Matt. x. 22). Whenever tyrants begin 
to persecute the Church of God, they strike first at 
the ReHgious Orders : them they fear and detest be- 
yond the rest. What Satan so abominates, our divine 
Saviour correspondingly loves. When Jesus ''looks 
upon" a young man ''and loves him," we can not be 
surprised if He calls him to the religious life (Mark 
X. 21), or to the priesthood (Matt. iv. 19), or to 
both together. "But every one hath his proper gift 
from God, one after this manner, and another after 
that. . . . But as the Lord hath distributed to every 
one, as God hath called every one, so let him walk" 
(i Cor. vii. 7, 17). 

Father Humphrey, in his Elements of the Reli- 
gious Life, writes on vocation : "He who enters the 
religious state must do so with full deliberation and 
sufficient knowledge. This knowledge must be not 
merely general and speculative, but particular and 
practical, and such as is arrived at by prudent judg- 
ment. The religious state must be considered with 
special relation to this particular person, taking into 
account his powers and capabilities, and other both 
intrinsic and extrinsic conditions. It is not true that 
everything which is best in itself is best for every 
individual. 

"Counsel should be sought of good men who are 
of sound judgment with regard to what constitutes 
and concerns holy and religious life, and, if pos- 
sible, of men who have themselves had experience of 
religious life. There should be taken into account 
not merely the person's own unaided powers, but 
along with these the divine assistance. 

"Desire for the religious state is itself, as a rule, 
from the Holy Ghost, and this desire is to be enter- 
tained as coming from Him. The Holy Ghost may, 
however, cause the desire of a thing the accomplish- 



State of Perfection. 59 

ment of which He does not will. He sometimes 
instils the desire as a means of merit, even if the 
desire is never to be fulfilled, and even if it is not 
expedient that it should be fulfilled. Hence, even 
if it is morally clear to a Religious Superior that a 
particular person has been moved by the Holy Ghost 
to ask for the religious habit, he will nevertheless 
rightly refuse him if it is not expedient for the Order 
that he should be received. The desire is given for 
this end chiefly that a man should deliberate, take 
counsel, and test his motives. ... If escape from 
temporal annoyances should remain in reality the one 
and only motive for leaving the world, it will not 
suffice as a reason for entrance into Religion. There 
would in that case be no prompt will to aim at the 
perfection which is the proper end of the religious 
state, no alacrity to bear its burdens, and no confi- 
dence in looking for and begging the necessary suc- 
cors of divine grace. The man would either not 
persevere, or he would not make progress. Re- 
ligious life would be to him not a sweet yoke, but a 
grievous burden. 

'Tt is not to be supposed that all, or that the 
greater number of bad Religious, had never been 
called. It is one thing to be called and it is another 
to follow the calling and constantly to persevere 
therein by faithful cooperation with the direction of 
the divine grace. 

''The common and sufficient signs of true vocation 
to the religious life are two in number. These are 
found when a man is fitted for the state, being en- 
dowed with those qualities which that state demands, 
and when at the same time, keeping steadfastly in 
view the end for which he was created, he, in serious 
deliberation, constantly finds that the religious state 
commends itself to him, and he forms a judgment 



6o State of Perfection. 

that, with the aid of God, he will easily in that 
state attain his end. It is in this way that God 
is wont to call men to the religious state, by inspiring 
both inclination and trustful confidence, there being 
always supposed any special fitness which may be 
required/' 

The points to be considered are fitness, pure in- 
tention, internal inspiration, earnest desire, counsel, 
serious deliberation. 

To recognize and to follow one's vocation, prayer 
is important ; humble, persistent, trustful prayer for 
light, direction, and strength. God lends a ready ear 
to prayer that is characterized by humility, sincerity, 
fervor and childlike confidence. "Ask, and it shall 
be given you ; seek, and you shall find ; knock, and 
it shall be opened to you'' (Luke xi. 9). Let the 
aspirant to the religious life constantly exclaim 
with young Samuel : ''Speak, Lord ; show me what 
Thou hast in store for me ; I am ready to hearken 
to Thy call and to do Thy will," or with the Royal 
Psalmist : ''Make the way known to me wherein I 
should walk, for I have lifted up my soul to Thee, 
O my God!"* 

*Father Rickaby, SJ. Ye Are Christ's. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Zbc (aueetton of a IDocatton to tbe 1RcUgion& State. 

y^HE question of vocations to the religious state 
^^ is sufficiently important to engage the most 
careful study of confessors. I distinguish between a 
general and a special vocation to the religious life. 
By general vocation I understand the invitation of 
Our Lord extended to all Christians to follow Him 
in the practice of the evangelical counsels. The 
special vocation is an act of divine Providence, by 
which God calls certain individuals, prompting 
them, fortiter et constanter, to embrace the religious 
state. In both vocations God gives the necessary, 
even superabundant graces, to fulfil the obligations 
of the religious state, and to secure eternal salvation. 
The general vocation, however, does not of itself 
furnish the means to practice the evangelical coun- 
sels, nor does it impose the obligation to enter the 
religious state ; but the necessary graces are to be 
obtained by pra3^er. And it assures an easier way to 
be saved than in the world. A special vocation gives 
us the necessary graces for the performance of cer- 
tain duties, and at the same time imposes a strict ob- 
ligation to obey the divine summons, a neglect Df 
which would endanger our eternal salvation. 
Speaking of this special vocation, St. Alphonsus re- 
marks : ''He who, neglecting a divine vocation to 
the religious state, remains in the world, will hardly 
be saved, because God will refuse to give him in 
the world those abundant helps which He had pre- 
pared for him in Religion; and although (absolutely 
speaking) he could be saved without these helps, yet 
without them he will not in fact be saved." 



62 . The Question of a Vocation. 

Could a person having good motives and barred 
by no serious obstacles enter the religious state, 
without any special vocation, but merely following 
the general invitation of Christ which says : ''If thou 
wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast . . . and 
come, and follow Me"? (Matt. xix. 21.) Most cer- 
tainly ; for Our Lord places no restrictions ; His in- 
vitations as well as His promise of eternal reward to 
those who heed His invitation are universal, 

Christ invited all to the practice of the counsels ; 
He specifies a good will as the only condition: ''If 
thou 'wilt be perfect.'/ But did He not likewise say : 
"All men take not this word, but they to whom it 
is given . . . He that can take, let him take it"? 
(Matt. xix. II, 12.) Our Lord here refers to the 
vow of chastity, which requires self-denial ; yet this, 
like . the practice of mortification, is possible for 
all. The Fathers of the Church, commenting on the 
Qui capere potest, capiat, give to it this meaning: 
He that is willing to take this counsel, let him take it 
courageously, and God will give him sufficient 
strength to keep it. Cornelius a Lapide sums up the 
patristic explanation when he writes : "Here the 
evangelical counsel of celibacy is promulgated by 
Christ, and proposed to all, nay even counseled, but 
not commanded ; for St. Jerome and St. Chrysos'tom 
maintain that the words : 'He that can take, let him 
take it,' are the words of one exhorting and animat- 
ing to celibacy. Moreover, it is signified that, as~ 
Christ gives this counsel, it is in our power to fulfil 
it if we invoke the grace of God and earnestly co- 
operate with it. Nor does the expression 'He that 
can take,' do away with the force of this ; for all 
that this means is, that continence is a difficult 
thing; and he who is willing to put restraint on 
himself, let such a one embrace continence, let him 



The Question of a Vocation. 63 

take it. It must be assumed, therefore, that all the 
faithful have power of continence,' not proximately, 
but remotely/' 

Christ invited all to the practice of the evangelical 
counsels, as the Fathers and Doctors of the Church 
explain, by imposing upon themselves the obliga- 
tion of a vow (per nioditm voti) ; for He asks a 
complete renunciation of self and earthly goods of 
those who wish to follow Him closely. One who 
retains the faculty (right) to marry, to possess 
property and personal independence, can not be said 
to have left all things to follow Christ. To the prac- 
tice of the counsels a person is bound only by vow, 
that is, by embracing the religious state. It is this 
religious state, and no other, to which Our Lord in- 
vites all. 'Tf any man will come after Me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" 
(Matt. xvi. 24). Si qitis vtdt^ St. John Chrysostom 
explains, ''Sive mtilier sive vir, sive princeps sive 
subdiUis, hanc ingrediatur viam/' And every one 
that follows the- divine invitation shall receive his re- 
ward. ''And every one that hath left home . . . 
for My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, 
and shall possess life everlasting" (Matt. xix. 29). 
But does not St. Paul write to the Corinthians : 
''Every one has his proper gift from God, one after 
this manner and another after that"? (i Cor. vii. 
17.) Yes, and in the preceding verse he recom- 
mends to all Christians the single life, that is, one 
consecrated to God : "I would that all men were 
even as I mvself." He counsels such a life 
for every one of the faithful. How could he ad- 
vise it, if it were not in the power and good 
pleasure of every one who asks for the necessary 
help from above? The general invitation to em- 
brace the religious state is a desire of the Lord ex- 



64 The Question of a Vocation. 

pressed to all men, a blessing offered to all ; yet He 
foresees that th*e majority will pursue another 
course, that ''not all will take this word, but they 
to whom it is given" (Matt. xix. ii). Christ does 
not mean to say that it is given to some and not to 
others ; but He shows that unless we receive the help 
of grace, we have no power at all of ourselves. But 
grace is not refused to those who desire it ; for Our 
Lord says : ''Ask and you shall receive.'' The gen- 
eral vocation does not of itself give the immediate 
power to follow the evangelical counsels, as a special 
vocation does, soliciting the will by an interior 
grace ; but every one has the power to obtain it by 
prayer and good works. Commenting on the words 
of St. Paul, "Every one has his proper gift,'' St. 
Ambrose says pointedly : ''Elige statum quemvis, et 
Dens dabit tibi gratiam competentem et propriam 
ut in illo staUi decenier et sancte vivas/' All the 
faithful have the "proper gift" and may follow the 
counsels — in actii primo — if they earnestly ask the 
grace of God and use the proper means ; yet in actu 
secundo, all do not make use of it, but prefer an- 
other state of life. It is possible for all to keep the 
Religious vows. To deny this possibility would 
seem to favor the doctrine of Calvinism. The re- 
ligious state is accessible to all, and as St. Thomas 
of Aquin remarks, "it is a coat of mail which fits 
not Saul alone, but is adapted to all ; with it, all may 
conquer and obtain the crown of eternal life." 

It is certain, however, that God ofifers to some a 
special vocation to the religious state. Those who 
receive such a call can not refuse to heed it without 
offending God. and risking their eternal salvation. 
Suppose a man in high station and with ample 
means extends a general invitation to his friends to 
meet him at dinner ; to a few he sends a special ure- 



The Question of a Vocation. 65 

ing by adding a postscript to the printed invitation : 
''I want you to be present without fail ;" to some 
others he sends a carriage to bring them to his 
house. While all are welcome at the table, the par- 
ticularly invited guests are especially expected; 
their absence would be an insult to the host, and 
nothing short of a moral or physical impossibility 
would excuse them. 

Now there are souls who clearly bear the signs of 
a special vocation to the higher life. The interior 
voice, which is God's own voice, has been telling 
them, since the days of childhood, that they would 
do better to enter the religious state and thereby fol- 
low more closely in the footsteps of Our Saviour. 
In the midst -of worldly pleasure and excitement 
they feel an aching void in their hearts; the voice 
is whispering that they should renounce all and fol- 
low Him. To others a special vocation comes sud- 
denly, like a flash of lightning ; a sermon, a mission, 
the reading of a book, a serious illness, the death 
of a dear one, an unexpected misfortune, or a sting- 
ing disappointment, is directing the mind and heart 
to Christ and His kingdom ; and the serious reflec- 
tions thus aroused are sometimes fostered and il- 
lumined by divine grace, and produce the solemn 
resolve to live for God alone. If the will remains 
firm and the motives pure, the marks of a special 
vocation are unmistakable. A confessor, though 
young in years and without the proverbial ''expe- 
rience,'' will have no difliiculty in deciding it, pro- 
vided there be none of the particular impediments 
by which the Canon Law of the Church safeguards 
the sanctity of the religious profession. 

The question may arise, whether, under such cir- 
cumstances, a person would be obliged to follow 
without delay the divine voice urging the embrac- 



66 The Question of a Vocation. 

ing of the religious state. Some writers on the sub- 
ject caution against haste in so grave a matter; they 
advise long and serious deHberation to make sure of 
the heavenly call. They have in mind the injunction 
of St. John : ''Believe not every spirit, but try the 
spirits if they be of God'' (i John iv. i). But he 
who believes the spirit calling him to a religious 
state, believes in the spirit of God ; for evil spirits 
will hardly induce any person to the practice of the 
counsels. 

Still, Our Lord Himself seems to insist on careful 
deliberation. For does He not say in reference to 
this higher state : ''Which of you having a mind to 
build a tower, doth not first sit down and reckon 
the charges that are necessary, whether he have 
wherewithal to finish it?'' (Luke xiv. 28.) Yes, the 
building of a tower here signifies Christian perfec- 
tion; the charges necessary are, according to St. 
Thomas, renunciation of self and earthly goods. 
Although there is no need of deliberation about the 
means (which are to renounce all things), if one de- 
sires to follow Christ, yet the important question is 
whether the person who experiences the divine call 
is willing to renounce all, one's personal will in- 
cluded, in order to follow Christ. Is there in the 
particular case a firm will to practice the counsels? 
When Christ said to the youth in the Gospel, "Fol- 
low Me," the latter answered : "Lord, suffer me first 
to go and bury my father." This was a simple and 
apparently just request. But Our Lord allowed him 
no delay whatever : "Let the dead bury their dead." 
Nor would He permit another to "take leave of them 
that were at his house." He sternly said : "No 
man putting his hand to the plow and looking 
back, is fit for the kingdom of God." The blessed 
Master would bear with no delay when He called 



The Question of a Vocation. 67 

His apostles; they followed Him continuo — statim. 
A fortiori, there is less delay necessary in a voca- 
tion to a religious life. 

The Fathers and Doctors teach the necessity of 
following promptly a special calling from God. St. 
Jerome uses strong words when he urges Helio- 
dorus to break away from his family and friends : 
''Make haste! What are you doing under the pa- 
ternal roof, effeminate soldier? . . . Even if your 
father were to throw himself across the threshold of 
your house, per calcatiim perge patrem ; siccis octilis 
ad vexillum cnicis evola. Sohtm pietatis genus est 
in hac re esse erudelem/' He congratulated a cer- 
tain Paulinus who had promptly obeyed the call of 
God, in the following beautiful words, which I dare 
not translate for fear of marring their beautiful 
force : ''Tu, audita sententia Salvatoris, 'Si vis per- 
fectus esse, vade et vende omnia qiice habes, et da 
pauperibus et veni, seqnere me f verba vertis in 
opera, et nitdain cruceni nudtis sequens, expeditior 
et levior scandis scalam laeob/' Again the great 
Doctor says : ''Make haste, and rather cut than 
loosen the rope by w^hich your bark is bound fast 
to the shore." "^ The Angelic Doctor treats this ques- 
tion ex professo: ''Utrum sit laiidabile quod aliquis 
religionem ingrediatur absque mitltortim consilio et 
diiiturna deliberatione prcecedente/'\ He answers 
in his masterly way : "Long deliberation and the ad- 
vice of many are required in great and doubtful 
matters, but in those things that are certain and de- 
termined, no counsel is required. With regard to 
entering the religious state, three things may be con- 
sidered : First, as to the question itself, it is cer- 

^Festina, quceso te, et hcerentis in solo naviculce funem 
magis prcescinda quam solve. 
til 2 qu. 189, a. 10. 



68 The Question of a Vocation. 

tain that to enter the rehgious state is better than 
not to enter it; and he who doubts this, gives the 
lie to Christ who has given this counsel. Hence, St. 
Augustine remarks : 'Christ calls you, but you pre- 
fer to listen to mortal man subject to error.' Sec- 
ondly, the strength of him who is about to enter the 
religious life is to be considered. Here again there 
is no room for doubt, because they who enter Re- 
ligion do not rely on their own strength, but on di- 
vine assistance, according to the words of Isaias, 
'They that hope in the Lord shall renew their 
strength, they shall take wings as eagles ; the}^ shall 
run and not be weary ; they shall walk and not faint' 
(xl. 31). If, however, some special impediment 
exists, such as corporal infirmity, debts, or the like, 
there should be deliberation, and advice should be 
taken from those who are favorable to your cause, 
and who will not oppose it. Thirdly, the special 
Order which one may desire to enter should be con- 
sidered. In this case counsel may be sought from 
those who do not oppose such a holy project.'' St. 
Thomas clearly teaches that a special vocation to a 
religious life is to be followed without delay or long 
deliberation. ''Nescit tarda molimina Spiritns 
Sancti gratia/' It is a very strange thing, St. Al- 
phonsus remarks after reading St. Thomas, that 
when there is question of entering the religious 
state in order to lead a more perfect life, and to be 
more secure against the dangers of the world, people 
pretend that you should have to move slowly, de- 
liberate a long time, etc. ; but when there is ques- 
tion of accepting a higher dignity, for instance, a 
bishopric, where there is danger of losing one's soul, 
they do not urge delay or inquiry into the reasons 
for taking it. We may safely say with the Psalm- 
ist to those who have a special vocation : ''To-day if 



The Question of a Vocation. 69 

you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts." 
The Master is calling ; hasten to follow Him. Trust 
in His all-powerful help. 

The priest, be he young or old, who exhorts young 
people to enter the religious state is likely to please 
God, and merit a great reward in heaven. Inducing 
people to quit the world and give themselves to God 
by the practice of the evangelical counsels is an act 
of supreme charity. 'Tf we knew," remarks St: 
John Chrysostom, "that a place was unhealthy and 
subject to pestilence, would we not withdraw our 
children from it, without being stopped by the riches 
that they might heap up in it? . . . This is why 
we seek to draw as many as we can to the religious 
life." Let us follow the example of the great Doc- 
tor, and gladden the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer 
by exhorting willing souls to follow Him in the con- 
secrated state. ''Adduceiitiir Regi virgines post 
earn: proximcc ejus afferentiir tibi. Afferentiir in 
Icetitia et exiiltatione: addncentiir in temphtm 
Regis.'' Frequent instructions on the religious life, 
and private admonition, wall turn young hearts to 
the great Lover of souls. It is a false and danger- 
ous principle that young people should first get a 
taste of "real life" and mingle with the world before 
entering a convent. "He that loveth the danger 
shall perish in it." Experience of the world is often 
gained at the expense of a real vocation. The flower 
should be culled before its leaves begin to fade or 
the insects to devour its beauty. Hearts should be 
consecrated in the springtime of love. The Council 
of Trent permits young persons to take vows in the 
religious state at the age of sixteen, after making at 
least one year's novitiate. Youth is the best time to 
offer vows unto the Lord, and the prophet says : "It 
is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from 
his youth." 



70 The Question of a Vocation. 

On the other hand, all those who either directly or 
indirectly keep persons from embracing the religions 
state injure both their own souls and the souls of 
others. St. Alphonsus teaches that parents and others 
who, without a j ust and certain cause, prevent persons 
from entering the religious state, can not be excused 
from mortal sin. The Fathers of the Council of 
Trent pronounce anathema against any one who, 
without a just cause, prevents young people from 
embracing the religious state. 

In certain cases, however, it is not only allowable 
to advise persons against entering the religious life, 
but it is the positive duty of the confessor or spirit- 
ual director to keep people from a state for which 
they have no aptitude, where they evidently will not 
persevere, or from which they are debarred by some 
canonical impediment. Moralists, and canonists es- 
pecially, give a list of such legitimate impediments 
to entrance into Religion. The principal of these 
are: defect of mind (unbalanced), ill-health, un- 
suitable age, indebtedness, public infamy, necessity 
of supporting parents. Some of these are juris 
divini; others are jitris ecclesiastici. They are all 
learnedly discussed and fully explained in the work 
on Canon Law for Regulars by Father Piat, the 
eminent Capuchin canonist."^ 

The limitations and restrictions placed by the 
Church upon entering the convent will, when rightly 
observed, prevent an increasing number of ex-Re- 
ligious. If persons leave a convent, it is not a proof 
in itself that they had no vocation for the religious 
life ; it generally proves that they neglected to pray 
fervently for the grace of perseverance, or preferred 
a life of ease and comfort to the penitential prac- 

"^Prcelectiones Juris Regularis, auctore F. Plato Montensi. 
Tornaci: H. & L. Castermann. 



The Question of a Vocation. 71 

tices of Religion, or sought their own will rather 
than the will of God. There was nothing lacking 
on the part of God, but they failed in the spirit of 
sacrifice so essential to the religious life, and they 
omitted to implore it from the Giver of all good 
things. Such defections, however, will not dispar- 
age the superior claims of a religious life, which St. 
Bernard sketched accurately centuries ago : ''Re- 
ligious live more purely ; they fall more rarely ; they 
rise more speedily ; they are aided more powerfully ; 
they live more peacefully; they die more securely, 
and they are rewarded more abundantly."''' 

^Bishop Stang in The American Ecclesiastical Review, 
September, 1902. 



CHAPTER X. 
Zbc %ovc ot (5ob. 

'Tch ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Lord thy God with thy 
^^ whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and 
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind" (Matt. 
xxii. 37). The love of God, and of our fellow-men 
for God's sake, is, as we all know, ''the great Com- 
mandment of the law/' ''Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with thy whole heart," and the rest. This 
is, in substance, a precept the observance of which 
(with repentance for past sin, which it virtually in- 
cludes) is essential to salvation. On the other hand, 
the highest sanctity can not reach beyond the per- 
fect realization of the ideal expressed in the precept. 
The most ordinary Christian is bound, in a very true 
sense, to love God "with his whole heart;" and the 
greatest saint that ever lived could do no more than 
to love God "with his whole heart." 

It is plain, then, that the love of God admits of 
degrees ; and since all our spiritual progress may be 
reduced to advancement in the love of God, it is 
useful to strive to form some definite notions on the 
subject. 

I. "If ye love Me," said Our Lord to His disciples, 
"keep My Commandments." This, which we may 
call "effective love," is the foundation of all. Re- 
ligion does not consist, principally and fundamen- 
tally, in words, and feelings, and outward observ- 
ances (though these have their place, and are 
necessary as helps), but in the interior obedience of 
the heart, in the resolute submission of the will to 
God's law. "Not every one that saith to Me : Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he 



The Love of God. y2f 

that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven, he 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." This obedi- 
ence must be entire. It will not do to say that wx 
will keep eight or nine of the Commandments, and 
reserve to ourselves the right of transgressing the 
other one or two ; or to observe the precepts of the 
Decalogue, and to neglect the Commandments of 
the Church. And again, our obedience, as a rule or 
principle of conduct, must be supreme. It will not 
do to say that we will obey the Commandments un- 
less it hurts too much to do so, or that we will not 
break them unless some one should make it well 
worth our while. The martyrs suffered death rather 
than offend God; and in doing so they were only 
acting up to a principle which Our Lord Himself 
had repeatedly and most explicitly laid down. Now 
it is plain that a man who habitually lives in the dis- 
position that for no consideration whatever would 
he offend God grievously, can truly be said to love 
God with his whole heart. And this degree or kind 
of love is necessary for salvation. 

2. But we ordinarily associate with the word 
''love" some degree of feeling and emotion. And 
although feelings and emotions are not of the 
essence of religion, and would not of themselves 
(any more than mere words) be sufficient to secure 
our salvation, yet it is well that our feelings too 
should be enlisted in the service of God. And un- 
less they are so enlisted, at least to some extent, our 
obedience is apt to fail under the stress and strain 
of temptation. Moreover, it is plain that God wishes 
to be loved not only with the effective love of the 
will, but with the "affective love" of the heart. 
Already, in the Old Testament, we find expressions 
which point to this affective love. ''Taste and see 
how sweet the Lord is," cries the Psalmist, and (not 



74 The Love of God. 

to multiply examples) the chosen people of the Jews 
are repeatedly spoken of as the spouse or bride of 
God Himself. Indeed, we may say with confidence 
that this desire of God for our heart's love was one 
of the reasons why the eternal Word not only be- 
came man, but chose to live such a life and to die 
such a death as we know Him to have lived and 
died. He knew how difficult it is for us to form an 
idea of God, as God, and of His attributes ; how 
almost impossible to keep such an idea before our 
minds ; how difficult, again, to love with the love 
of affection a Being of whom we can not think 
except by means of abstract notions. The efifort to 
do so is like trying to speak a language with which 
we are imperfectly acquainted. But God in His 
condescension would, as it were, translate His attri- 
butes into the language of human life and action. 
He. would be born of a human mother ; and who 
does not know how much of tender devotion and 
piety among Christians is due to this blessed choice ? 
He would take a human Heart to love us with. Not 
content with telling us that the lot of the poor 
and the mourner is blessed. He would enroll Him- 
self formally in the ranks of the poor, and would be 
Himself a Man of sorrows. He would be born in 
a wayside stable, that all might have easy access 
to Him. He would lie as an infant in His crib, that 
children might learn to love Him. And then, after 
all the moving events and incidents of His life here 
on earth. He would die hanging aloft upon the cross, 
that He might draw all hearts to Himself. Truly, 
in the words of Bishop Hedley, ''J^sus Christ makes 
worship easy'' ; and one of the ways in which He 
makes worship easy is by providing great abun- 
dance of fuel wherewith to kindle the flame of affec- 
tive love. 



The Love of God. 75 

3. But there is a higher kind of love than this, 
and the recognition of the possibihty of this higher 
kind of love, even for us, may have a most impor- 
tant bearing on our choice of a state of life. The 
cross of Christ is not so limited in its power that 
it can merely arrest attention, or evoke reverent 
and affectionate sympathy, or awaken feelings 
of compunction. From the crib to the cross Jesus 
was engaged in doing a great work : a work 
which is still going forward in the world. Now, 
friendship or love, if it rises beyond the level 
of mediocrity, is not content with avoiding of- 
fence to the person loved, or with affectionate 
and tender feelings. It leads us to interest our- 
selves in the undertakings of our friends, and 
this in no merely speculative and platonic fashion, 
but in such practical sort as to desire, if it be possible, 
to share in those undertakings, and to help with all 
our power in carrying them through. And, in fact, 
Our Lord does invite men to share in His great 
work, and He has made it possible for us to help Him 
in carrying it through. 'Tf you love Me,'' He says 
in effect to St. Peter, ''feed My sheep.'' And quite 
apart from the dogmatic bearing of these words, as 
pointing to the unique position which St. Peter was 
to hold in the Church, they express a principle which 
is in some degree applicable to all of us, and is 
appHcable in a special sense to a favored few. 'Tf 
you love Me, feed My sheep." The test of love, of 
the higher grades of love, is readiness to cooperate 
in His great work for the salvation of mankind. 
Are we ready? Are we willing? This is a point 
which many persons do not consider half seriously 
enough. 

But some one may say : ''Oh, that is all very well 
for people who have vocations to the priesthood ; but 



76 The Love of God. 

I have no vocation." Perhaps not ; and he would be 
a very fooHsh director or adviser who should attempt 
to induce any one to take up so grave a responsi- 
bility as that of the priesthood or the religious life 
if he had no vocation for it. But what, after all, is 
a vocation? The terms of Our Lord's invitation 
would seem to be general: ''If thou wilt be perfect, 
go sell all thou hast and give to the poor, and come, 
follow Me." And again, when He speaks of the 
counsel of holy chastity, He says : "Qui potest capere, 
capiat'' — "Let him take it who can." We must not 
wait for an express messenger from heaven, or a 
special invitation sounding audibly in our ear. Fit- 
ness for the work is the main thing; and (assuming 
the absence of insurmountable obstacles) fitness for 
the work and a genuine desire to undertake the 
work are in ordinary cases the two elements that 
go to the making of a vocation ; and the desire may 
be regarded as the special and particular sign of the 
working of divine grace in the soul, assuring one, 
who is otherwise fit, of God's call to himself indi- 
vidually. Now from what has been said it is plain 
that a vocation does not ahvays come to a man, as it 
were, ready made. It is not like a parcel tied up, 
and addressed, and laid on our table. Rather it is 
like a delicate and tender seedling which, if we tend 
it carefully, will grow^ to maturity, but if we neglect 
it, will wither away and die. It is plain that one 
who is not yet fit may render himself fit ; and, on the 
other hand, that one who has all the promise of fit- 
ness, may, by wasting his time, by indulging frivo- 
lous habits, or by yielding to grosser temptations, 
very efifectively spoil his own character, and quite 
disqualify himself for the work of the priesthood. 

And so, too, as regards the desire to serve God 
in the priesthood or in the religious state, It may 



The Love of God. 77 

be neglected and allowed to languish till it dies away 
altogether; or it may be cultivated by meditation 
and prayer till it matures into a firm determination. 
And by the same means it may often be acquired 
where not even the germ of it might have been 
previously detected. Practically, the course to be 
followed when we are considering the question of 
our state of life is, first, to pray earnestly, and seri- 
ously to consider the true end and purpose of human 
life ; secondly, to write down our reasons on either 
side, and carefully to ponder them ; then to form 
our decision, at least provisionally, and again com- 
mend it to God in prayer ; and finally, to ask advice. 
And it is to be observed that the stage at which 
advice is, ordinarily speaking, most likely to be 
profitable comes after and not before we have taken 
the trouble to think the matter out for ourselves ; 
and — be it repeated — in thinking the matter out for 
ourselves, we should by no means grudge the use 
of pen and paper. ''Writing," says Bacon, ''maketh 
an exact man ;" and it will not unf requently be found 
that reasons which had loomed large in our im- 
agination shrivel up into very modest dimensions 
and look rather foolish when the attempt is made 
deliberately to write them down. 

It may seem that we have wandered a long way 
from the subject with which w^e started, viz,, the 
love of God. Yet it is not so if it be true — as it 
unquestionably is — that the supreme test of love is 
generosity toward Him whom we love; and if the 
best kind of generosity is willingness to give up all 
things, including our own liberty, for His sake, in 
order that we may follow Him — if He should be 
pleased to allow us so to do — even in much labor, 
and in many privations and sufferings, until death. 
For of this we may be sure, that a desire for the 



78 The Love of God. 

priesthood or the religious life is not quite genuine — 
or, at best, not quite fully mature — unless it includes 
a determination to face, for Christ's sake, a good 
deal that is unpleasant to nature and contrary to our 
inclinations. But we may be sure of this, too, that, 
notwithstanding all hardships, disappointments, or 
drudgery incident to his condition, there is no happi- 
ness in this world like that of the man who knows 
that from morning till night and from year's end to 
year's end he is engaged in carrying out, to the best 
of his ability, the work which Christ our Lord came 
on earth to do. 

But it w^ould be a very great mistake to suppose 
that this higher kind of the love of God, which 
manifests itself in a desire to imitate Our Lord as 
closely as possible, and to share His work, is to be 
found only among priests and Religious, or that it 
is not attainable in its degree by every one of us. 
Many circumstances may concur to make it clear 
that any particular person is not called to the priest- 
hood, or to the religious state. He may have the 
duty of supporting, or helping to support, his parents 
or other members of his family ; he may be physically 
unfit, or unsuited by natural disposition, for the 
duties of a priest. But no disability, financial, physi- 
cal, intellectual, or moral, can hinder him from lov- 
ing Our Lord with all his heart. No obstacle can 
prevent him from taking, as his rule of conduct, not 
the law of parsimony, the principle of the man who 
asks : ''How little can I do — what is the least that 
I must do — in order to save my soul ?" but the law 
of generosity, the principle of the man whose ques- 
tion is always : ''Is there anything more that I can 
do to please Our Lord better, and to follow Him 
more closely than I have hitherto done?" There is 
plenty of work for God and the Church to be done 



The Love of God. 79 

by laymen ; and the law of generosity is aptly ex- 
pressed by our Stonyhurst motto: Quant je puis: 
"As much as I can/' Whether we be priests or 
whether we be laymen, in generosity toward God, 
at whatsoever apparent or momentary cost to our- 
selves, lies the secret of true joy and peace. Quant 
je puis; not ''as little as I am obliged," but ''as much 
as I can." "^^ 

*From Rev. Herbert Lucas, S.J., In the Morning of 
Life, second revised edition. 



CHAPTER XL 

Zhc \)ovoe.—Zbc IRxxlce. 

Hibmela? ^ppointetr l^eans for 5^elpma tje Soul ©ntoartrs, 
liaj bg JBag, to Its Hife of J^erfect illtfiaritj. 

^?J^HOSE who dedicate themselves to God in the 
^^ religious Ufe do not thereby change the end of 
their creation. That remains forever the same, in 
every state of Hfe. Union with God is the common 
end of all : and charity, as the mutual love between 
the soul and God, is the only bond of union. As, 
therefore, charity unites with God, even in this life, 
so the perfect union with God in the future life is 
attained by perfect charity. Consequently, it is per- 
fect charity that brings us at once to our end and 
our perfection. What the religious life does for us, 
over and above the Christian life, is to supply us 
with the perfect means for gaining the end, binding 
us through life here below to the use of these means. 
This is why it is called a state of perfection ; because 
it binds us always to tend to perfect charity, and 
gives us the perfect means for doing so. These 
means are found in the three vows of the religious 
life, which are instrumental to perfect charity by 
removing from the soul three distinct impediments 
thereto. These impediments to perfect charity are : 

1. The love of earthly possessions. 

2. The love of carnal pleasures. 

3. The love of our own will. 

The vow of poverty removes the impediments to 
perfect charity which arise from afifection to 
external things. 



Divinely Appointed Means. 8r 

The vow of chastity removes the impediments to 
perfect charity which arise from fleshly pleasures 
and creature loves. 

The vow of obedience removes the impediments to 
perfect charity which arise from our own self-wilL 

In this way we see how the three vows are means 
to the end — or, in other words, the instruments to 
perfect charity. This is the distinct and repeated 
teaching of the Angelic Doctor.^ 

We all know how the view of the end, and the 
constant desire to attain it, moves any one to use 
the proper means thereto. An artisan, bent on pro- 
ducing a richly adorned cabinet, must have his 
hammer, chisel, nails, and all other needful tools. 
A scholar wants his books and masters ; a husband- 
man his plow and horses ; a housewife her needle 
and thread. It is the same with us in Religion. Our 
work is the formation of perfect charity to God and 
to our neighbor ; and for this work the vows are the 
instruments in hand. Let every Religious, there- 
fore, see that he uses his vows in reference to this 
end. 

The view of this most desirable of all ends will 
constantly show him the need of, and spur him on 
to the practice of, poverty and detachment of spirit. 
For his great aim is to have his heart free for the 
life of love with God. But how can he be free if he 
is held by affections for, and attachments to, the 
things of earth ? How will an eagle fly if its foot be 
chained ? ''Behold we have left all things, and fol- 
lowed Thee." Let them all go. By a single stroke 
the vow of poverty cuts them away from the soul. 

"^''Patet quod consilia ad vitce perfectionem pertinent, non 
quia in cis principaliter consistit perfectio, sed quia sunt 
via qucedam vel instrumenta ad perfectionem caritatis 
hahendam." — Opusc, ''Cont. Retrah.," 6. 



82 Divinely Appointed Means. 

How freely now the soul, disengaged from things 
of earth, turns to the divine Lover ! And as its work 
is to progress in love, so, day by day, it keeps itself 
poor — ''poor in things, but poorer still in affection to 
things.""^ Thus it is that poverty is instrumental to 
perfect charity ; and we practice it in all its details, 
that by its help the soul may go on and on, day by 
day, more and more, to perfect love. For as we are 
set on gaining the end, so we are set on using the 
means. If w^e deflect from the practice of poverty, 
we thereby deflect from the way to the end. 

But when external possessions are given up for 
whole-hearted love, fleshly love is there to engage 
the soul. Here comes in the vow of chastity, and all 
for the same end, to clear the heart's affections of 
lower love — to remove the hindrances to the divine 
light and love that rise from fleshly passion — that 
the heart being thus free and empty, the divine 
Lover may Himself engage it, and gradually purify, 
illuminate, and perfect it. Thus chastity is seen as 
instrumental to the main work of our perfection by 
perfect charity. Nor is it hard to part with human 
loves and lovers, to gain the divine love and the 
divine Lover. 

But even wnth poverty and chastity, God's love 
within can not get full possession of the soul as long 
as self-will is the manager of things. The soul, 
therefore, bent on getting to perfect charity, finds it 
necessary to remove the impediments thereto arising 
from its own self-moving principle. As long as it 
moves even to good things by self-love and self-will, 
it moves not by love to God. And therefore its 
charity is far from perfection. A change of prin- 
ciple is needed. Obedience it is that supplies this 
change, by giving us the will of God to be done. 
*Blosius, Spec, Monach. C. de Mortif. 



Divinely Appointed Means. 83 

And therefore the loving soul takes it as its third 
vow, by which to clear away the remaining hin- 
drances to perfect love, arising so plentifully from 
its own natural will and selfish love. 

As the civil power is from God, so is the spiritual 
power. Hence we yield our obedience to every 
rightly constituted Superior, both in the temporal 
and the spiritual order, since the divine authority 
is represented in both. 

Thus in Religious life the local Superior repre- 
sents the higher Superior, such as the Provincial or 
General of the Order. The General represents the 
Holy Father, and the Holy Father Our Lord's own 
presence and authority. 

This is why our vow of obedience is taken directly 
to God Himself — Promitto Obedientiam Deo — the 
living Superiors representing the divine authority. 
This it is that gives us in Religion the ever-priceless 
assurance that every obedience to Rule and the 
living Superior is the distinct fulfilment of the 
divine v/ill — and this doing of the divine will 
is a direct exercise of divine charity, which 
ever moves us to do the will of the Beloved. 
And as in Religion we are moving from obedi- 
ence every hour of the day ; we see how the 
divine will and love are thus brought directly to 
the soul, giving to us the divinely appointed means 
of progressing day by day in the life of charity, 
which always remains the essential perfection of the 
soul. 

Over and above the vows, which appertain to 
religious life in general, each Order holds certain 
other instrumental means of perfection in hand, in 
the Rules proper to its own Institute. 

Let it be well remembered at the outset, that these 
Rules are, in addition to the three vows, the divinely 



84 Divinely Appointed Means. 

appointed means for helping the soul onward, 
day by day, to its life of perfect charity. 

We have seen how the three vows serve their 
purpose as means to this end, by removing three 
sets of impediments thereto. Now, the Rules, as 
St. Thomas tells us, are arranged in order to help 
us effectually to the keeping of our vow^s. Thus 
the vows and the Rules are all meant to serve the 
main purpose of helping us on to the life of perfect 
love v/ith God and with our neighbor."^ Who that 
lives in Religion will not feel the truth of this? 
"Thou art called a Religious," says Blosius. "See 
that thou art truly what thou art called." 

We all know the difference between the pro- 
fession of a religious life and the practice of it. 
We make our profession; we have the habit; we 
live in a religious house ; we are called in name after 
the Order we profess ; we follow the daily routine 
of the house. But are we inwardly and practically 
true religious men and women? 

The meaning of the word religious is "bound 
again" — that is, bound again to God. A Christian 
is bound to God by faith, hope, and charity. A 
Religious is bound again to Him by the bond of 
special love, by which He, the divine Friend, Father, 
and Lover, lives a life of friendship and union with 
the soul of His choice ; and this, by the additional 
triple bond of the three vows — and these well 
secured by the daily observances of regular life. 

All this being understood, why should we not 
give ourselves, heart and soul, to the duties of our 
profession? Much will depend upon our keeping 

^"Votum religionis ordinatur sicnt in Unem ad perfec- 
tionem caritatis: et omnes alice Religionum ohservanticu 
ordinantur ad tria votaf — St. Thorn., 2, 2, Q. 186, Art. 7 
ad I & 2. 



Divinely Appointed Means. 85 

the main work steadily in view. The children of 
the world do all this in the business of life. Their 
main work is clearly before them. They want posi- 
tion, science, art, or gain : they know the means to 
the end, and know how to use them thereto; and 
right well do they use them. Reason, instinct, tell 
them to do it. Why are we not as wise in spirituals 
as they are in temporals? Our end is union with 
God by perfect love. Our means to this end, the 
vows and Rules. Do we love our poverty, chastity, 
and obedience? Do we love our Rules? And are 
we, by their means, constantly progressing toward 
the life of perfect love with God? The plan is 
simple enough; it just requires that amount of 
earnestness that people of the world give to their 
temporal concerns. 

Who, then, will be found to say, "The Rules are 
small — and not binding under sin" ? 

Small, perhaps, just considered in themselves. 
But the point is, they are means to the great end — • 
means, too, given us by the Church, representing 
Our Lord's authority and will — and when carried 
out in view to perfect love, they assuredly become, 
every one of them, distinct acts of love, gradually 
forming the corresponding habit. And, after all, the 
spiritual life is the formation of a habit, and the 
habit of love is formed by its acts. Each act may be 
small ; but the repetition of acts makes the habit, and 
the habit makes the character. 

Therefore let us mind what we are about. In 
divine things nothing is small. The value is from 
the Spirit of God, and from the progress to the 
end. God does not regard just how much we do, 
but with how much love we do it. As The Imitation 
says : ''He does much, who loves much.''* 

'^From Rev. H. Reginald Buckler's A Few First Princi- 
ples of the Religions Life. 



CHAPTER XII. 
XLbc 1Rellgtou0 iproml0e» 

IN the life of a Religious there is nothing more 
important, more truly serious, than the promise 
he has made to God in taking up the obligations 
of the religious state. St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi 
used to say that it was the "greatest grace, after 
baptism, that God could bestow." If a Religious 
fails in his religious obligations, he fails utterly ; 
if he is faithful to them, he is God's faithful 
servant. 

Let us consider that the religious state is a means 
to an end, not an end in itself. It is a means 
adopted in order to love God zvith the whole heart. 
There are those who have been, in a sense, driven 
into Religion by the thought of their obligation to 
love God with all their strength, mind, and heart; 
and by the conviction that, being such as they were, 
they could not fulfil this terrible obligation in the 
world. There are others who, without feeling so 
deeply or so acutely as this, have entered Religion 
because they longed to love God more intensely and 
more continuously. ''Blessed are they that dwell in 
Thy house, O Lord ; they shall praise Thee forever 
and ever" (Ps. Ixxxiii. 5). 

Everything that tends to keep the heart from crea- 
tures, and to diminish the power of temptation, is 
a means to love God more perfectly. But the re- 
ligious state has the advantage of being more than 
an isolated attempt, or an unconnected series of 



The Religioifs Promise. 87 

attempts, in this direction ; it is what is called a state. 
That is to say, it sets up a stable condition of things, 
such as is adapted of itself, to keep off all that would 
interfere with God's love. Thus it is a state of per- 
fection ; for it is a state which, by its very existence, 
necessitates to a great extent the absence of tempta- 
tion and makes detachment permanent — these two 
conditions being conditions which, as a rule, ensure 
the perfect love of God. A soul not bound by re- 
ligious vows may be personally more perfect than a 
Religious, if it loves God more ; but the Religious is 
in a more perfect ''state/' Happy is he if he lives 
up to it! He dwells in a ''House" with a roof over 
his head against the elements, and strong walls 
against hostile attack ; but the house itself with all 
its bolts and barriers will not make him holy unless 
he loves it. 

Reflect, then, that God's love has drawn thee into 
this holy state ; where, as St. Bernard says, we fall 
more rarely, we rise more quickl}^, we live with 
greater restraint, and we arrive at detachment more 
rapidly."^ Nothing but His love has drawn thee. 
In childhood, thou wert as others ; perhaps more in- 
different, more intemperate, more sensual. Or if, 
by God's grace, thou didst awake early to His call, 
yet it was He w^ho called, and no other. It w^as He 
who whispered in thine ear when thy head was bent 
dowm in recollection before the altar where thou 
hadst first received thy Saviour. It was He who 
led thee to directors who made thy way plain before 
thee. It was He who breathed generosity into thy 
young heart, urging thee to mortification and de- 
tachment. Or, perhaps, it was otherwise with thee — 
and it was He who lifted thee from the slough of 

*"Cadit rarius, surgit velociiis, vivit parciiis, purgatur 
citius/' 



88 The Religious Promise, 



to' 



thy sins, to conversion and to the knowledge of thy 
Redeemer. However it was, it v/as not for any 
merits of thine that He drew thee to Himself. 
Nothing can account for it except His love. ''I have 
loved thee with an everlasting love ; therefore have 
I drawn thee, taking pity on thee" (Jer. xxxi. 3). 
Can any thought be better adapted than this to make 
thee feel that thou hast a Father in heaven ? ^ 

Reflect, again, that that with which He inspired 
thee, and which was in thy thoughts when thou 
didst utter thy vows, was nothing less than a total 
and absohite sacrifice of thyself to His love and ser- 
vice. It is called ''total and absolute," because what is 
given up by the vows of poverty, chastity, and 
obedience goes very far indeed to cover everything 
which could be given up. True, it is impossible to 
miake vows which shall literally include every pos- 
session and every liberty. But, substantially, we do 
make a total renunciation; and, what is more, we 
wish and intend, as far as human weakness permits 
and the grace of the Holy Spirit enables us, to give 
up to God's love really and truly everything. The 
vow of poverty covers every item of worldly prop- 
erty which we have or shall ever have. The vow of 
chastity not only detaches us from a life which 
would have been sure to make us, to a greater or less 
degree, neglect ''the things of the Lord," but it 
places a double restraint upon us, in a thousand 
matters which the infirmity of human nature makes 
exceedingly dangerous to our sovereign love of God. 
And the vow of obedience aflfects the very well- 
spring of our self-love, with all its innumerable 
streams and channels. Thus, we have made a sac- 
rifice of freedom, power, afifection, proprietorship, 
ease, and enjoyment. "With burnt-ofiferings" God 
has declared He "will not be delighted" (Ps. 1. 18), 



The Religious Promise. 89 

that is, with the burnt-offerings of the ceremonial 
law ; but there is a kind of holocaust on which He 
will look with divine approval. He will not despise 
"a contrite and humbled heart." This is the offer- 
ing of the Religious — a heart which is ''broken" by 
the renunciation of pleasure, and ''humbled'' by 
parting with that which is dearest to man — the sense 
of being one's own master. 

It is not difficult to understand how a life of this 
kind tends to intensify the act of charity. First of 
all, it is a life of sharp pangs of endurance ; and, all 
pain, lovingly accepted, intensifies our love of God 
and our adherence to Him. How mistaken, there- 
fore, art thou, O religious man, if thou dreadest, or 
triest to avoid, the rough things of thy religious life ! 
For it is just these things which thou camest to Re- 
ligion to find. To be a Religious, and to spend one's 
days in avoiding all that is irksome to the flesh or 
annoying to the spirit, is to be foolish and incon- 
sistent to the last degree. Far better not to have 
left the world. The same may be said of him. who 
seeks to weaken religious discipline, or to escape 
from rule and routine; for rule and discipHne, en- 
closure, silence, and separation from the world, are 
the necessary consequences of the vows ; they are 
the vows reduced to practice. Now, the object of 
the vows, as we have seen, is to put barriers between 
ourselves and the first shock of temptation. Who- 
ever, therefore, withdraws himself from regularity, 
withdraws himself from the beneficent influence of 
his vows, and to that extent weakens the bulwarks 
which he himself erected with his own hand in or- 
der to be more constantly near to his God. ''Redde 
Altissimo vota tuaT Pay thy vows, O Religious! 
Remember thy vows ! Mock not thy God ! Thou 
hast promised, and even in thy tepidity thou wouldst 



90 The Religions Promise. 

not wish to unsay thy promise. Shake off thy 
tepidity, then, and understand that the Hfe of him 
who schemes to escape rule is the Hfe of one who is 
in the way to be unfaithful to his vows. 

Ah ! when thou didst make those holy promises 
how filled with horror would thy soul have been 
hadst thou foreseen the indifference and the sloth 
that were to come! For thou madest that promise 
in thy fervent youth; nay, perhaps thou hadst vir- 
tually made it from thy childhood, and it had led 
thee on, like the pillar of the Lord, to the land of 
milk and honey, the land of the rehgious life. 
Thou didst make that promise in the fear of God, 
filled with the awe of thy Creator, impressed by the 
inevitableness of His power, and by the majesty of 
His immensity. Thou didst make it with the 
thought of thy deathbed before thee, and of what 
thou wouldst wish thy life to have been when thou 
earnest to be stretched thereon. Thou didst make it 
in the fervent love of God above all things, with 
the feeling of His beauty and the conviction that He 
was thy only good, thy last end, and thy all. Thou 
didst make it in the joyousness of divine grace, in 
the impulse of the Holy Spirit, in the magnanimity 
of His sovereign gifts, looking forward to the fu- 
ture as one looks forward to a pleasant journey. 
Thou didst make it in the hatred of sin, the loathing 
of its filthiness, the dread of its contamination ; 
feeling that nothing could be sweeter or more de- 
lightful than to live pure and innocent all thy days. 
Thou didst make it in the ardor of the desire of per- 
fection ; in the fervor of the emulation of the saints. 
Thou didst make it with the anticipation of thy 
heavenly country, where for endless ages the base 
and trivial things thou didst trample upon would 
be repaid thee with inconceivable bliss. 



The Religious Promise. 91 

At first, perhaps, these impulses continued and 
grew stronger. The sweetness of divine love led 
thee on — the fervor of a beginner made burdens 
light and the rough way smooth. But by degrees 
unfaithfulness crept upon thee. When the impulse 
of fervor was wanting, thy efforts grew slack. 
Having trusted, perhaps, more to thyself than to 
the grace of thy heavenly Father, thou didst fall — 
fall in little things, perhaps in greater. Thou didst 
begin to keep things back from thy sacrifice. Thou 
didst allow thyself to scrutinize, and hesitate, and 
even refuse. The holy strictness of the Rule began 
to displease thee. Thou didst not accept, as here- 
tofore, the common life, the common food, the lodg- 
ing, the work ; thou didst fail in loving all persons 
equally for Christ's sake ; thou didst try to cheat thy 
Saviour in those things which are intended to make 
the Religious like unto Him who bore the cross. 
Perhaps thy vows at that time were little before 
thy mind. For from renewing them with a warm 
heart every day, thou didst hardly remxmber to re- 
call them at weekly or even monthly intervals. 
More than once thy conscience has surprised thee in 
dislike of thy vows. There were temptations to re- 
gret having made them ; temptations which were not 
rejected, but allowed to lie in the heart and poison 
its life. Dangerous thoughts, of instability — even 
of apostasy — were not by any means strange to thee 
in thy hours of sadness or of sloth. Thou didst 
come to neglect the observances and ''little things" 
of thy community life. Thou didst grow to be slow, 
unpunctual, lax, and self-seeking; to love distrac- 
tions and outside work or recreation ; to disturb thy 
brethren by singularity, by the seeking of exemp- 
tions, the contempt of observances, the criticisms of 
Superiors, and general discontent with the religious 



92 The Religious Promise. 

life. Whither does all this lead? Canst thou doubt 
it ? It leads to the abandonment of the religious life ; 
and, therefore — since it seems that God intends thee 
to save thy soul by the religious life — to thy eternal 
ruin. Even if this thought should shock thee, and 
thou shouldst refuse to allow thy apostasy to be in- 
ferred from thy laxity, there is another considera- 
tion. Such a Hf e as is here described leads to the 
abandonment of the desire of perfection. Nay, it is 
the abandonment of that desire and purpose. No 
one can be relaxed, unmortified, and lazy and at the 
same time desire to love God with such a whole 
heart as thou didst once long to do, and as every 
Religious ought to long to do. But this is a miser- 
able and lamentable condition to be in. Those who 
are in the world, though they be not fervent, yet as 
long as they keep from mortal sin fail in fervor 
chiefly through their lawful occupations, their want 
of thought, their deficiency in spiritual instruction, 
and their low standard of supernatural aims. But 
it can not be so with the Religious. He has lei- 
sure for thought ; he has been drawn into the sanc- 
tuary of God ; and he has taken upon himself obliga- 
tions grounded precisely on his appreciation of the 
supernatural. He has understood that nothing on 
earth is equal in value to one step of greater near- 
ness to Christ. He has not only understood this, 
but has, to some extent, lived and acted up to it ; so 
that if he abandons the desire of perfection, he aban- 
dons it through sloth, selfishness, and dehberate 
choice. To do this, and to continue to wear the 
habit and tread the cloister, is to be a cheat and a 
liar. No true and genuine heart could long endure 
to be in such a condition. There must be con- 
version, or there will be desertion. O my Lord and 
Saviour ! Thou who didst inspire me to pronounce 



The Religious Promise. 93 

my vows before Thy altar, give me light and the 
force of Thy powerful grace, that I may understand 
how contemptible and pitiable a thing is a Religious 
who makes no effort to live up to the life of 
Religion ! 

Every Religious, then, is bound to aspire to per- 
fection. Nor need this thought disturb any anxious 
heart. What he is bound to aspire to is not perfec- 
tion in any absolute or transcendental sense; but 
such perfection as is naturally attainable by those 
who employ the means placed at their disposal by 
the religious life. That life, by its vowed renuncia- 
tions, and by its consequent practical course — its 
prayer, its humility, its subordination of act and will, 
and its holy occupations — is quite certain to estab- 
lish in the heart a progressive state, which may, 
without exaggeration, be called perfection ; that is, 
a remarkably close union with God, throvigh Jesus 
Christ. This the Religious is bound to desire; for 
such a desire is implied in the acceptance of religious 
obligations ; because, if a Religious really accepts 
the obligations of his state, he either does so with 
the object of making himself perfect — as just ex- 
plained — or he accepts them out of mere supersti- 
tion, as a Stoic might have done, or even an Indian 
fakir. In order, therefore, to be sure that thou dost 
aim at perfection, thou needest to do no more than 
live with exactness thy religious life. 

But it is to be feared that many Religious fail to 
make the most of that holy life to which they have 
had the grace to be called. There is, in their habit- 
ual way of living, a want of intention, a want of ap- 
preciation — in other words, a want of solicitude, 
about their love of their Father in heaven. The 
vows and the practices of Religion are helpful and 
salutary — but only to those who put some energy 



94 The Religious Promise. 

into their use. They are divinely adapted to in- 
tensify the acts of the heart toward God, but only 
if the Religious thinks of it. They are most valu- 
able in making our life one continuous lifting up 
of the soul toward its Creator — O happy condition ! 
— but only if each hour is consciously used, and each 
act and hardship separately infused with spiritual 
intention. The Religious who lives his life mechani- 
cally is losing his time, and squandering precious 
moments which might merit for him the highest 
and the innermost heavens. My Father! open my 
eyes, that I may see light ! Grant me, that from the 
morning, when I am summoned to prayer, till the 
evening, when I lay down my head in prayer to 
rest, I may use to the full every moment of prayer, 
every word of reading, every slightest Rule, every 
order of my Superior, every encounter with my 
brethren, every step in the cloister, every touch of 
the outward world, every vicissitude of my spirit 
and my flesh, every visitation of the cross — to draw 
me to the lifting up of my heart, and to greater 
nearness to Thee !* 

• *From Bishop Hedley's Retreat. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

©eneral ©tlnclples of tbe IReligioue %itc. 

I . "y^'ou have been so fortunate as to heed the voice 
h of Jesus ; you have manfully overcome the 
obstacles that faced you on your entrance into the 
sacred enclosure of the monastery ; you were burning 
with zeal to embrace the religious exercises there 
practiced. But remember, it is not enough to have 
begun well : you must also persevere and end well ; 
otherwise you will expose yourself to great danger 
and will merit greater disgrace than the man we 
read of in the Gospel, who, after he had successfully 
laid the foundation of a grand edifice, had not the 
perseverance to finish it. ''He that perseveres to the 
end shall be saved/' 

2. Often consider what singular grace God be- 
stowed on you in choosing you from among thou- 
sands who were much more zealous in His service 
than you, and who had not offended Him so often, 
in order that He might lead you out of -the world, 
as He led His chosen people out of Egypt, and might 
conduct you into a God-fearing community as into 
the Promised Land. Thank Him from your heart 
for the great things He has done to you ; thank all 
those who have assisted you ; above all, be thankful 
to God's Virgin Mother. How grateful you would 
be to those who had saved you from shipwreck and 
had brought you safely to land ! The Religious 
who does not thank God daily for the grace of voca- 
tion shows that he does not know its value, and no 
longer deserves it. 

3. In all your actions keep in sight the purpose 



96 General Principles of the Religious Life. 

for which you entered the Order. You took this 
step because you did not wish to rest satisfied with a 
common grade of virtue acquired by faithfully keep- 
ing God's Commandment — this grade of perfection 
is common to many people out in the world — but you 
desired to become a truly devout Religious, aiming 
after the highest perfection attainable here below. 
With the assistance of grace your soul desires to 
enter into close union with God. Encourage your- 
self in this, then, as St. Bernard used to do, by ask- 
ing yourself with deepest recollection of soul as he 
did: "Bernard, why did you come here? Why did 
you choose this kind of life?'' Unless you take 
close aim you will shoot wide of the mark. 

4. This intimate union of the soul with God is 
interior rather than exterior, and is reached by fre- 
quent interior acts of faith, hope, and charity, and 
similar acts of virtue, joined to praise, adoration, 
and humility. You must do what Jesus Christ has 
done, and all the saints after Him : namely, per- 
form all your exterior actions with perfect interior 
recollection of soul, with devout intention, and with 
entire conformity of your will to the divine will. 
Union with God, who is a pure spirit, can take place 
only with a perfectly purified soul. 

5. Learn from Jesus Himself the way to become 
truly interior. ''Deny yourself," He says; that is, 
combat the cravings of nature which, however harm- 
less and pardonable in appearance, are still punish- 
able and tainted with self-love, unless they are 
purified by a good intention. ''Take up your cross" 
- — that is, overcome your natural heaviness and dis- 
like, so as to maintain yourself in the practice of the 
duties to which your newly-chosen state obliges 
you ; "and follow Me" — that is, strive always to do, 
not your will, but His. Self-will and unmortified ap- 



General Principles of the Religious Life. 97 

petites as truly hinder perfection as the broad and 
pleasant way prevents entrance into everlasting life. 

6. If perfection, as I have pictured it, appears 
difficult — and it is difficult, indeed, if measured only 
by your strength — then excite yourself to confidence 
in the goodness and power of God, who in His 
mercy called you. He will never let you want the 
strength necessary to accomplish what He requires 
of you. See how many have happily reached the 
goal who were weaker than you are and had less 
assistance. Therefore, do not invent excuses to 
defend your timidity : on the Day of Judgment no 
excuses will be accepted. He that does his best and 
trusts in God always attains the end in view. 

7. It is a painful surprise to meet Religious who 
have spent ten and twenty years in a monastery and 
still cling to the w^orld, are still slaves to their whims, 
touchy under the slightest difficulties, more luke- 
warm in their devotions and unsteady in their habits 
than people out in the world. Alas ! to lead such 
lives — is it not to abuse the vocation we profess? 
Is not this, in very truth, making sport of Religion, 
and deceiving one's fellow-man ? In such a pass are 
we not in danger of losing our souls ? Our Saviour, 
though meekness itself, called down a terrible curse 
upon the barren fig-tree. Think you He will not 
pass a much more severe sentence on souls who in 
the sacred habit of Religion fail to practice the genu- 
ine virtues of Religion ? Therefore I feel compelled 
to cry out with Moses (Deut. xxxii. 29), Oh, that 
persons favored by God in so extraordinary a man- 
ner would be wise and would understand ! Would 
that they understood the singular grace which God 
bestowed upon them by inviting them to His divine 
espousals. Merciful God, grant them the grace that 
henceforth they prepare themselves with scrupulous 



98 General Principles of the Religious Life. 

care for the strict account which Thou wilt require 
of them on Judgment Day for all the graces which 
Thou hast conferred upon them. Not change of 
dress, but change of manners, constitutes true re- 
ligious life. 

According to Father Dirkink, S.J., a perfect 
novice, who in time will -become a true Religious, 
may be known by the following signs : 

1. He never commits a venial sin with full delib- 
eration. 

2. He conceals nothing from his Superiors, nor 
does he wish that they should remain in ignorance 
of anything about him whatever. 

3. He bears it without bitterness if upbraided for 
his faults. 

4. He cheerfully does penance for failings which 
scarcely deserve a punishment. 

5. He takes advantage of every chance to deny 
and mortify himself. 

6. He always speaks of matters that are in keep- 
ing with his vocation. 

7. He keeps so close a guard over his external 
conduct that a searching eye finds hardly anything 
to blame. 

8. Books that excite virtuous resolutions he reads 
with greater fervor and relish than those which 
merely satisfy curiosity and engage the mind. 

9. He entertains no special friendship that rests 
on purely natural grounds. 

10. He steadily combats self-love by undertaking, 
with the consent of his Superiors, whatever he dis- 
likes. 

11. He struggles with success against weariness 
at prayer, reading, and other spiritual exercises. 

12. He estimates the practical value of meditation 
not by the consolations he experiences, but by the 



General Principles of the Religious Life. 99 

amount of love he acquires for virtue and the care 
he takes to avoid wilful imperfections. 

13. He longs for perfection, not to benefit self, 
but to please God. 

14. He avoids the smallest violation against the 
Rule and holds nothing unimportant that bears on 
perfection. 

15. He frequently consults his novice-master and 
submits to his guidance to the intent : 

(a) That he may be protected against the danger 
of mortally offending God, and lessen the number of 
venial sins and imperfections. 

(h) That he may practice virtue with safety. 

{c) That he may learn to perform his interior 
and exterior actions more perfectly from day to 
day. 

16. Of several good works he aims to choose the 
more perfect. 

17. He shows no preference for any occupation, 
office, or place, but simply accommodates himself to 
every situation and circumstance. 

18. He is always satisfied and cheerful, never ill- 
humored or self-willed. 

19. He is not easily worried about anything, and 
construes matters in the best light; but things that 
may injure the community, a wrong-doer, or a 
neighbor, he does not fail to report. 

20. A novice fashioned in this mould and rooted 
in solid virtue leaves the novitiate with such a dread 
of sin and imperfection, and such a love of virtue 
and perfection, that all alone and without fear of re- 
proof he will lead a life as virtuous, pure, and 
guarded, as if he were constantly under the ob- 
serving eye of a most venerated Superior. 

I conclude with the short advice, ''Do this and 
thou shalt live." Yes, you will live in your com- 



100 General Principles of the Religious Life, 

munity with pleasure, your life will be blameless, 
godly, and perfect, as becomes a true follower of 
Christ. I entreat you, only make a brave start ; for 
''well begun is half done/' "When you begin," says 
St. Bernard, "begin well ; if you do, you will soon 
reach the end." And when, like the angels ascend- 
ing, you have mounted, as up a Jacob's ladder, the 
rounds of virtue, you will find the Lord leaning 
upon the topmost round, and you will be clasped in 
the blessed outstretched arms of your God."^ 

Perseverance in prayer is a means to perseverance 
in one's vocation. The novice must have frequent 
recourse to God, imploring the grace of persever- 
ance, for that grace, says St. Augustine, is not ob- 
tained without prayer. But the novice tempted to 
leave the Order into which God has lovingly intro- 
duced her, ought not to be satisfied with saying: 
"O God, enlighten me, that I may know what I 
must do !" No, let her pray with confidence in this 
way : "After giving me the vocation, O my God, 
give me also the strength to persevere in it!" 
Let her pray that God may confirm her in her voca- 
tion, that she may ever know and love God, and 
that she may, to the end of life, abide in His grace. 
Let her be very candid with her Superiors in regard 
to her interior struggles, and humbly submissive to 
their directions. Childlike obedience will bring peace 
to her soul in connection with the divine Master's 
prayer : Fiat voltmtas Tua. 

*From Verheyen's General Principles of the Religious 
Life. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

XLbc IRenewal ot Vovce. 

^TT's we read in Father Humphrey's Elements of 
<^J^ the Religious Life: "St. Thomas attributes to 
religious profession, and as an effect of religious 
profession, remission of all punishment which is due 
for sin, and this as it were ex opere operato. He 
does so on the ground that if a man by means of 
some alms can satisfy for his past sins, that man 
can satisfy for all his past sins who gives himself 
wholly and without reserve to the service of God. 
Such an offering exceeds every kind of satisfaction, 
or even of public penance, in the same way as a 
holocaust exceeds a sacrifice. 

''Religious profession is, according to St. Thomas, 
an act which is so excellent that, if it is made in an 
ordinary way from an affection of charity, even if 
without extraordinary fervor, it suffices, as a rule, 
to satisfy for all sins of the past. This effect, there- 
fore, would follow, not from extrinsic privilege, but 
from the perfection of an act which is such as is 
religious profession. Besides this, however, there 
has been granted to some Orders, by concession of 
the Sovereign Pontiff, a plenary indulgence at en- 
trance into the Order, and another at the hour of 
death." 

Religious profession is called a second baptism by 
St. Jerome, St. Cyprian, and St. Bernard, and be- 
cause the act of consecrating one's self entirely to 
God by the three vows of poverty, obedience, and 
chastity is so noble and heroic, the saints also com- 
pare the religious life to martyrdom. The religious 



102 The Renezval of Vows. 

life is indeed one long, incessant martyrdom. At 
first glance, as St. Bernard observes, nothing ap- 
pears to us so frightful as those early martyrdoms 
by fire and sword, rack and cross, and other instru- 
ments of torture. But the martyrdom of the Re- 
ligious, in respect to its duration at least, is much 
more severe and painful. The martyrdom of those 
heroic witnesses to Christ often ended with one 
stroke of the sword. The suffering of the Religious 
ends not with one blow. Day after day and year 
upon year she is kept upon the rack of humiliation 
and mortification; her own will and judgment are 
consumed by the fire of obedience ; she must die to 
self-love by the crucifixion of the spirit. The mar- 
tyrs, according to the saints and Councils of the 
Church, obtained pardon of all their sins by their 
martyrdom, and straightway entered heaven without 
passing through purgatory; for martyrdom is a 
supereminently excellent and heroic act, as Christ 
Himself tells us: ''Greater love than this no man 
hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends'' 
(John XV. 13). More than his life a man can 
not give. The giving of one's life to God in a 
Religious Order, the absolute and complete sacrifice 
of one's self by the perpetual vows, is a work so 
excellent and so heroic that a man by it gives to 
the Lord all that he has, all that he is, and all that 
he can give. By that act, saints and theologians 
teach us, he obtains pardon and exemption from the 
punishment due his sins. He stands before God 
very much like one newly baptized or as a martyr. 
Hence the profession of the vows is likened to bap- 
tism and martyrdom. 

From the excellence and perfection of the religious 
profession we can understand how very advan- 
tageous it is frequently to renew the holy vows. 



The Renewal of Vows. 103 

New obligations are not assumed by this renewal, 
but what has already been undertaken is commem- 
orated and confirmed. By the renewal of her vows, 
the Religious gives expression to her gratitude, her 
joy and exultation. She proclaims by it that she 
does not find the religious life a burden, and that 
she does not regret having assumed it. 

The vows should be renewed, first, to increase de- 
votion, an end to which the renewal very powerfully 
contributes, as is the experience of all who do so 
with fervor and sincerity. It should be made to 
recall the obligations taken to God. It should tend 
to keep constantly before one's eyes the promises 
made on the day of profession, and to reanimate 
one's zeal in striving after virtue and perfection. 
Lastly, the renewal of the vows should be made as a 
protection against temptation, especially that which 
leads the soul to become weary, disheartened, 
gloomy, and fretful. 

This renewal of vows should be made especially 
on the anniversary of profession. On that day the 
Religious should seriously remind herself of the 
offering that she made to Almighty God ; she should 
reflect on His design in calling her to the religious 
vocation, and with new zeal pursue the work of her 
sanctification. What the Lord wished the Israelites 
especially to lay to heart on their departure from 
the land of Egypt was the memory of the day on 
which He had shown them so great mercy. So 
earnest was He on this point that He commanded 
them to celebrate an annual festival of eight days in 
remembrance of it. They were to eat on that day 
with festive ceremonies a lamb in memory of the 
lamb which had been slaughtered w^hen they were 
freed from captivity. God ordained this in memory 
of their liberation from corporal captivity, though 



104 The Renewal of Vozvs. 

they were not thereby made spiritually better. How 
much more reason has the Religious to celebrate that 
day on which the mighty and merciful hand of God 
liberated her from the bondage of the world, the 
captivity of the soul, and led her on the way not 
to the earthly but to the heavenly land of promise ! 
But this renewal of vows should be made, according 
to the exhortation of St. Francis Xavier, not only 
on the anniversary of profession, but daily. This 
great and zealous apostle says : "There is scarcely 
any means so efficacious, any weapon so powerful 
for Religious in their combats against the tempta- 
tions of the devil and the flesh, as the renewal of 
the vows." He advised us to arm ourselves against 
the enemy of our soul by making this renewal every 
morning after prayer and meditation. It is a very 
excellent devotion in connection with Mass and holy 
communion. 

The renew^al of vows should be made, moreover, 
in gratitude to Almighty God for the grace of voca- 
tion and for all other favors and blessings. The 
Church annually solemnizes the dedication of her 
material temples ; and it is expedient that you 
should celebrate the feast of the consecration of your 
soul, that living temple of God. Gratitude expressed 
by works is the best. This renewal, therefore, must 
be very pleasing to God, provided that it is made 
with the intention of confirming one's vows and 
gaining strength to observe them more perfectly in 
the future. The Apostle Paul admonishes to this 
when he says : ''Be renewed in the spirit of your 
mind'' (Ephes. iv. 23). The renew^al must be not 
only verbal, but spiritual. Recall the zeal, the fer- 
vor of your first day in the novitiate. Begin anew 
with the same zeal, the same firm resolves. That is 
really a renewal, a self -renewal, highly pleasing to 



The Renewal of Vows, 105 

God, and an excellent act of thanksgiving for graces 
received. 

Sigh with holy Job : ''Who will grant me that I 
might be according to the months past, according to 
the days in which God kept me? When His lamp 
shined over my head, and I walked by His light in 
darkness?" (Job xxix. 2, 3.) Are you troubled and 
disheartened? Think of the magnificent recom- 
pense in store for you. *'Lose not your confidence," 
savs St. Paul, 'Svhich hath a great reward" (Heb. x. 

35)- 

The evil one is apt to tempt and torture young 
Religious when they are in a state of desolation. 
''Do you not see," he says, "that you have no peace 
in this house? You have lost all devotion. Every- 
thing inspires you with disgust — prayer, spiritual 
reading, holy communion, yes, even the community 
recreations. Is not this a sign that God does not 
want you here?" Ah, how dangerous is such a 
temptation, especially in the beginning of the noviti- 
ate, when the poor soul has had no experience ! To 
emerge victorious from the struggle, let the novice 
reflect in what true joy of heart consists here on 
earth, where she is to lay up treasures of merit by 
much suffering. It consists in absolute conformity 
of one's will with the will of God. In this, also, is 
found the highest peace. Whether God leaves the 
soul in darkness, or whether He gives it consola- 
tion, peace is found only in perfect submission to 
His holy will. With Thomas a Kempis let the novice 
say : ''Lord, Thou knowest what is best. Do with me 
as Thou knowest, and as best pleaseth Thee, and is 
most for Thy honor. Put me where Thou wilt, and 
do with me in all things according to Thy will. I 
am in Thy hand ; turn me hither and thither as 
Thou choosest. Lo, I am Thy servant, ready for all 



io6 The Renewal of Vozvs. 

things ; for I do not desire to live for myself, but for 
Thee. Oh, that I could do so in a worthy and per- 
fect manner! 

''Grant me Thy grace, most merciful Jesus, that it 
may be with me, and labor with me, and continue 
with me unto the end. Grant me always to will and 
desire that which is most acceptable to Thee, and 
which pleaseth Thee best. Grant that I may die to 
all things that are in the world, and for Thy sake 
love to be despised, and to be unknown in this w^orld. 
Grant unto me, above all things to be desired, that 
I may rest in Thee, and that my heart may be at 
peace in Thee." 

Evidently one of the favorite prayers of a fervent 
Religious should be the Suscipe of St. Ignatius : 
''Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my mem- 
ory, my understanding, and my whole will. Thou 
hast given me all that I am and all that I possess ; 
I surrender it all to Thee, that Thou mayest dispose 
of it according to Thy will. Give me only Thy love 
and Thy grace ; with these I will be rich enough, and 
will have no more to desire." 

In The Folloiving of Christ the Lord admonishes 
the soul thus : "The purer the eye of thy intention is, 
with so much greater constancy wilt thou pass 
through the storms of life. Direct thy whole atten- 
tion to this, that thou mayest please Me alone, and 
neither desire nor seek anything out of Me. But 
never to feel any grief at all, nor to suffer any 
trouble of heart or body, is not the state of this 
present life, but of everlasting rest. 

"Think not, therefore, that thou hast found true 
peace if thou feel no burden ; nor that then all is 
well, if thou have no adversary ; nor that thou hast 
attained to perfection if all things be done accord- 
ing to thy inclination. 



The Renewal of Vows. 107 

"Neither do thou conceive a great notion of thy- 
self, nor imagine thyself to be especially beloved if 
thou experience great devotion and sweetness ; for 
it is not in such things as these that a true lover of 
virtue is known. The progress and perfection of 
a man do not consist in these things." 

'In what, then, O Lord?" 

"In offering thyself with thy whole heart to the 
divine will, so that with the same equal countenance 
thou continue giving thanks both in prosperity and in 
adversity." In other words, liberty of spirit should 
be the aim of a Religious, and this she achieves by 
doing all things simply Ad majorem Dei gloriam. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Cbtiattan Bacetlctem anD Common Settee^ 

^'*T^.ET US bring common sense to bear upon re- 
r^—^ ligion as upon other departments of life." 
This is a piece of advice, excellent as far as it 
goes, which we read the other day in a Catholic 
publication, and made a note of, though indeed we 
rather think we have heard something like it before. 
Common sense is a valuable gift, or an equally valu- 
able acquirement. To lack common sense were in- 
deed a misfortune; to possess it, and habitually to 
use it, is to have laid a foundation on which a whole 
edifice of good qualities and habits, psychological 
and moral, may be reared. 

But the foundation of a house is not the peak of 
its roof, the basement is not the topmost story ; na- 
ture is not grace ; and common sense is not heroism. 
A hero may be, and ought to be, a man of common 
sense; but it is not common sense that makes a 
hero. And when some one proclaims that religion 
ought to be characterized by common sense, we do 
Vv^ell to be on the alert lest perchance he should 
quietly proceed from this sound principle to the 
mischievous assumption that in matters of religion 
plain common sense — or what he understands to be 
such — is to have the last word. Any account of vir- 
tue that seems to bring its soaring heights down to 
the modest level of our own eyes is more or less 
gratifying to our self-love. 

''Let us bring common sense to bear upon re- 
ligion." By all means, if by this be meant — let us 



Christian Asceticism and Common Sense. 109 

take care that our religion at least does not fall short 
(as it may easily do) of the common sense stan- 
dard. *'The children of this world are wiser in their 
generation than the children of light." The chil- 
dren of this world go about their worldly business in 
a common sense fashion, adapting means to ends, 
and taking care not to let opportunities slip ; and 
we do well to look to it that in religious matters we 
at least reach this degree of practical wisdom. But 
if by ''bringing common sense to bear upon re- 
ligion," it is meant that common sense is to pre- 
scribe limits to religious perfection, then the exhor- 
tation seems to smack of a kind of rationalism, and 
is hardly in harmony with the lives and teachings 
of the saints. Of course it may be said that all de- 
pends on your definition of terms ; and if the mean- 
ing of ''common sense" be so stretched and en- 
larged as to include, or at least to imply, faith, hope, 
and charity in their highest manifestations, no one 
could wish for a more perfect test by which to try 
any kind or form of religious exercise. But such 
is not the usual connotation of the term, and prac- 
tically the stickler for common sense in religion will 
often be found to be one who would damp enthusi- 
asm, pour cold w^ater on zeal, and set bounds — un- 
intentionally, of course — to heroism. 

These remarks are suggested, not merely by the 
few words which we have selected as a kind of peg 
on which to hang them, but still more by the con- 
text in which the words occur. The writer who 
pleads for the application of common sense to re- 
ligion does so by way of clinching an argument, or 
of putting beyond dispute the truth of a theory 
which he has just been expounding, concerning the 
true principles of Christian asceticism. And the 
theory is worth discussion, because it is one which 



no Christian Asceticism and Common Sense, 

is, we fear, gaining ground, even among Catholics, 
at the present day. The writer's view of asceticism 
is a common sense view, and so far is good. It is 
too exclusively a common sense view, and so far is 
inadequate, and unless supplemented by further 
considerations tends to become mischievous, and all 
the more mischievous by reason of its specious ap- 
pearance, and the somewhat oracular tone with 
which it is put forward. /'The Christian fasts,'' we 
are told, ''not to appease an angry Deity by suffer- 
ing; this were a relic of heathen superstition, dis- 
honoring to God and degrading to man ; but that 
the whole man, body and soul together, may be more 
active in the service of God and his neighbor, his 
thoughts quicker, his hand stronger." And again : 
'Tt is temperance, not abstinence, the state of the 
trained athlete, tense, alert, vigorous, not that of 
the sickly starveling, faint for w^ant of food," that 
"the Fathers of the Church . . . commend." And 
once more : "What is important is that people should 
be in what is called a state of training: the means 
are of less moment, so long as the end is attained." 
The writer further illustrates his principle by ob- 
serving that "the cold bath, the dumb-bells and the 
bicycle are remedies against vice and incentives to 
virtue (?), as efficacious, perhaps, as the haircloth 
and the scourge." 

Now, apart from the offensive words about ap- 
peasing "an angry Deity by suffering," to w^hich we 
shall hereafter recur, there is much that is true in 
the remarks we have quoted; much that belongs to 
the legitimate domain of common sense brought to 
bear on religion. There are plenty of people for 
whom under ordinary circumstances, and apart 
from what the Church prescribes, no higher kind of 



Christian Asceticism and Common Sense. in 

asceticism is reasonably feasible, so far as external 
acts are concerned, than ''the cold bath, the dumb- 
bells, and the bicycle," coupled with the intention to 
use them for the purposes of keeping a sound mind 
in a sound body for the service of God and of man 
for God's sake. But here a distinction must be ob- 
served. It is quite true that, in a well-known pas- 
sage of the first epistle to the Corinthians ( i Cor. 
ix. 24 seq.), St. Paul compares Christian asceticism 
to the training of the athlete. This training, how- 
ever, is to fit the Christian athlete for the exercise 
not merely of head and hand, but more especially of 
the heart ; it is a training for the exercise not merely 
of natural faculties, but of supernatural virtues. 
Still, the same degree of training is not exacted of 
all ; and the devout bicyclist, faithful to his morning 
prayers, and also to his morning tub, is a type of 
Christian not by any means to be despised. He is 
doing his best according to his light ; and very com- 
mendably makes use of natural means to keep out 
of mischief. But he is hardly a saint, and makes no 
pretence to exhibit in his more or less blameless life 
the highest ideal of Christian perfection. 

To return, however, to the subject of fasting. 
Fasting and other austerities are, indeed, primarily 
intended to keep under control the passions and the 
animal impulses of man's composite nature. This is 
undoubtedly the purpose which is most frequently 
insisted on in the Collects of the Lenten Masses in 
the Roman Missal. And unless this primary pur- 
pose be achieved, there is abundant room for self- 
delusion in asceticism. Moreover, this particular 
lesson is one which always needs to be enforced, 
and at no time more than now. We are told (by the 
same writer from wdiom we have already quoted) 



112 Christian Asceticism and Common Sense. 

that ''the dressing-gown-and-slippers idea of Hfe is 
gaining ground among us ;'' and, with every allow- 
ance for epigrammatic exaggeration, the im.putation 
may be admitted at least to this extent, that peace 
and prosperity necessarily bring with them more or 
less of danger lest men should settle down to such 
a bourgeois standard. In all ages, not excluding 
our own, men need the warning to keep them- 
selves ''in what is called a state of training." And 
provided the "state of training" be rightly under- 
stood, vi^., as having reference to distinctively re- 
ligious activities, nothing more than this can be 
either required or expected from the great majority 
of Christians. 

But the laudable desire to keep one's self "in what 
is called a state of training" is far from being the 
only motive which has led the saints of God's 
Ghurch to engage in penitential exercises. The no- 
tion of "a state of training" is one which of itself 
involves no special relation to the central mysteries 
of the Christian faith, the Incarnation and death of 
Christ our Lord. Again and again throughout the 
New Testament men are either bidden or encour- 
aged to take up the cross and follow Our Lord and 
to rejoice that they are privileged to 'share in His 
sufferings. It is true that suffering is not put forward 
as an end in itself, and no sound system of asceti- 
cism could represent it as such. But although it is 
not an end in itself, it is, or may rightly be called, 
a means in itself. That is to say, the endurance of 
pain or privation is not merely a means whereby a 
man may fit himself to perform certain actions which 
are meritorious of life everlasting. It is a means 
whereby — without the intervention of any ulterior 
means — merit may be gained, provided, of course, 
that the pain or the privation is endured, and volun- 



Christian Asceticism and Common Sense. 113 

tarily assumed, with a right motive.* That this is 
the case with sufferings encountered in the pursuit 
of duty, or under stress of persecution, or as the re- 
sult of works of charity, zeal, and the like, needs 
no proof for a Catholic. But, as in the case of these 
sufferings, this special motive is set before Chris- 
tians, that in undergoing them they are made par- 
takers in the sufferings of Christ, so this same mo- 
tive has in all ages led the saints, and thousands of 
fervent Christians who have not been saints, to de- 
sire to be as far as possible "made conformable to 
the likeness" of Christ suffering. To take only a 
few instances, which ought indeed to be superfluous, 
we read that St. Vincent Ferrer, from his earliest 
youth, practiced certain austerities "in order to 
bring the flesh into subjection and in memory of the 
Passion of Christ f' and w^e are told that the Blessed 
Henry Suso "was vehemently led on by his desire 
to bear in his body some sensible mark of his com- 
passion {condolentice) with the most bitter Passion 
of Christ. "t ''The violence of persecution has 
ceased," says St. Peter Damian in effect ; ''why 
should I therefore be defrauded of the pains which 
I desire to undergo for the love of Christ?":!: And 
he speaks of the "sweet punishment" which is borne 
for His love. "Christ," says Gretser, "bound to the 
pillar and nailed to the cross, invites all to consider 
and contemplate the pains which He thus endured." 
And who, he asks, will better bring home to himself 
the bitterness of those pains than he who voluntarily 

"^"Deus qui corporali jejunio vitia comprimis, menfem 
elevas, virtutem largiris et prcBmia." — Prcef. Missce temp, 
quadrag. Cf. Gretser, Opera IV., i, 55. 

tGretser, ihid., p. 20. 

iEpistola ad Petrum Cerebrosum, fnonachum, apud Gret- 
ser, loc. cit., p. 69. 



114 Christian Asceticism and Common Sense. 

inflicts pain upon himself?* Now this desire to 
partake, in however small a degree, in the sufiferings 
of Christ, and the penitential acts whereby this de- 
sire is in a measure fulfilled, are plainly meritorious. 
Nor are they meritorious alone, but they are also 
available for expiation. Even antecedently to any 
explicit knowledge of a coming Redeemer, the fast- 
ing and the sackcloth of the Ninivites were pleasing 
to God and moved Him to forgiveness. Not, of 
course, that God (or ''an angry Deity") takes de- 
light in suffering as such. But that He is appeased 
by acts of penance, whereby man forestalls, as it 
were, the punishment due to his sins, is the plain 
teaching of Holy Scripture. f It is not the pain as 
such which pleases Him, but the dispositions with 
which the pain is endured. And without the pain 
the dispositions would at least be less intensely real- 
ized or actuated. 

It is true, of course, that asceticism, like other 
good things, may be carried to excess. Neither the 
Fathers of the Church, nor any other sensible per- 
son, would commend ''the state ... of the sickly 
starveling, faint for the want of food." But, in the 
sentence from which we have taken these words, 
there lurks a fallacy, unless, indeed, it ought rather 
to be said that the fallacy obtrudes itself on the no- 
tice of the attentive reader. It lies in the calm as- 
sumption that no middle term can be found between 
"the state of the trained athlete" (fresh from his 

*Gretser, loc. cit., p. 62; similarly, p. 201. 

Y'Quod si rernuum et abstirdum est credere illud pocni- 
tenticE genus Deum in aMictione nostra despicere quod in 
semetipso dignatus est pro nostra salute perferre, quid 
mirum, si puniendo conimissa suimet se exhiheat homo 
tortorem, et ad evadendum judicium sibi se constituat 
judicem." — Gretser, p. 6y. 



Christian Asceticism and Common Sense. 115 

tub, or his dumb-bells, or a spin on his bicycle) and 
that of the ''sickly starveling'' ; or, rather, that no 
third or intermediate condition can be worthy of 
commendation. And yet there undoubtedly is such 
an intermediate condition. It is that of those who, 
without in any degree incapacitating themselves for 
the work which it is their duty or their vocation 
to perform, yet seek to share as far as may be the 
pains of their suffering Saviour, and who, in so 
doing, pass far beyond the limits of anything that 
could reasonably be called mere spiritual ''training." 
"I do not know," wrote Father Thurston a few 
years since, in reply to a distinguished Anglican di- 
vine, ''if Archdeacon Farrar chances to be ac- 
quainted with the life of St. Francis of Assisi, or 
of St. Peter Claver, or of St. Vincent of Paul, or 
the countless other Lives in the annals of Christian 
charity. Probably he looks upon these apostles as 
drones in the world's hive, 'half-dazed Spanish friars' 
exulting in the unnatural, self-macerating misery of 
convitlsionnaires. Yet these were men who gave 
their days to toiling for their fellow-men, and their 
nights to meditating upon their crucifix, inflicting 
pain upon themselves" [not merely that they might 
keep themselves "in what is called a state of train- 
ing," but] "that they might resemble their Saviour 
more closely.""^ And, to borrow another illustra- 
tion from the article we have just quoted, the pro- 
tracted fast of those Christians, both residents and 
pilgrims, whose Holy Week devotions are so graphi- 
cally described in the Peregrinatio Sihice, was as- 
suredly no mere exercise of spiritual drill. It was 
a spontaneous act of loving devotion, born of the 

*Thurston, Archdeacon Farrar on the Observance of 
Good Friday, in The Month, May, 1895 (subsequently re- 
published by the C. T. S.), p. 91. 



ii6 Christian Asceticism and Common Sense. 

desire to keep company with Jesus, as closely as 
possible, during the days'of His Passion. "^^ 

It may indeed be alleged that the penitential prac- 
tices of the saints should be regarded as, in their 
case, a means toward the kindling and keeping alive 
of the flame of charity ; that, without such practices 
in some shape or form, that passionate love of Christ 
crucified, which is the distinguishing mark of Chris- 
tian holiness, can hardly be maintained, unless un- 
der circumstances in which persecution or the call 
to extraordinary .labors abundantly supplies the 
place of self-inflicted pain and privation. But peni- 
tential practices are not merely means toward the 
attainment of divine charity ; they are also the fruits 
of that virtue, and when informed thereby, they are 
not m,erely useful as part of a course of spiritual 
athletics, but are in themselves in the highest degree 
expiatory and meritorious.f 

^Thurston, loc. cit., pp. 98 ff. 

tFrom Christian Asceticism and Common Sense, by 
Rev. Herbert Lucas, S.J., in The American Ecclesiastical 
Rez'iezv, March, 1901. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
TlClaa Gbri0t an Ueccticl* 

IN a charming and commendable work from the 
pen of a scholarly Catholic priest there is one 
passage which has given rise to some misgiving. 
In a meditation on the words, ''Let your moderation 
be known to all men," the clever writer says : 

''Our Lord was no ascetic ; His great Apostle, 
Paul, who has best interpreted His spirit to the 
Western world, was no ascetic, though he chas- 
tised his body and brought it into servitude to the 
reasonableness of the New Law. Asceticism serves 
a purpose in the Church, and may be said, without 
exaggeration, to have been baptized by her spirit ; 
yet of itself it is no essential part of the soul of 
genuine reHgion, and does not necessarily reveal the 
lineaments of the truer Christ, who in His earthly 
career was at once manly and tender above all His 
saints' imaginings of Him, and who had, moreover, 
a curiously every-day note about His exterior con- 
duct that rebuked the intolerant austerity of the 
Pharisees and formalists of the towns, as well as the 
aloofness of the dwellers in the desert. And yet 
asceticism has played a large part in the history of 
the Church, and has, if possible, a graver role to ful- 
fil in an age which threatens to be emasculately 
enamored of the material comforts of existence. But 
its functions will ever be remedial and transitional. 
Certain types of temperament will be saved by it as 
long as the Gospel will be preached." 

*For reasons that seemed good to him, the introductory- 
sentences of this article were changed by the Editor. 



ii8 Was Christ an Ascetic f 

About seven years ago there appeared in The 
Spectator an article containing a passage remark- 
ably like the one just quoted. It runs thus r 

''Asceticism is neither the cause nor the effect of 
holiness, nor even its proof and sign. . . . Per se 
and in its essentials, Christianity has nothing to 
do with asceticism. Our Lord was not an ascetic, 
and showed no special favor to ascetics. Indeed, He 
may be said by His teaching and example to have 
put a curb on the tendency of the Hebrews (like all 
other Asiatics) to overrate asceticism, and to con- 
sider those who ran into extravagances of bodily 
mortification as especially holy. . . . The ascetic 
is not necessarily a Christian, or the Christian an 
ascetic ; but for all that, the ascetic habit has a good 
deal to be said for it.'' 

Now, while granting that these statements contain 
much truth, we are bound to say fhat we think that 
both their substance and their tone are apt to sug- 
gest what is not truth. In warning us of one danger 
we fear the writers have incurred the opposite 
danger. Let us, then, try to discuss the matter in- 
telligently ; and even if we do not arrive at cer- 
tainty, w^e may help somewhat to clear the atmos- 
phere. 

To go to the root-meaning of asceticism : it is 
daneoD, to practice or to exercise ; aattrjan, exer- 
cise or training; daKr}rr\z, an athlete. From time 
immemorial, and among all classes of people, bodily 
exercise and discipline have ever been held and felt 
to be a means of acquiring moral and spiritual per- 
fection. Among various classes of men there have 
been varying degrees of strictness in this self-dis- 
cipline, ranging from those who sought nothing 
more than mere tem.perance to those who inflicted 
t'-f^mselves with extremest austerities. So, too, have 



Was Christ an Ascetic f ii9 

men carried on this discipline from motives of the 
widest diversity — the saint, the stoic, the athlete, or 
the fakir. But always the general and prim.ary end 
in view was to subdue the material to the spiritual. 

In the early Church there was a body of fervent 
Christians known as the Ascetes. According to the 
apostolic canons they were placed as a class between 
the clergy and the laity. They did not leave the 
world, like monks or hermits, but tried to carry 
on their lives of self-discipline in the world, using as 
means thereto fasting, prayer, chastity, and casti- 
gation of the body. The predominant idea of their 
exercise and training seems to have been simply the 
subduing of their lower nature. Here we have the 
embryo of asceticism. Along with the development 
of the Christian religion the ascetical idea and prac- 
tice developed also. The ulterior miotive for sub- 
duing the lower nature was love of God. When 
once the line of mere temperance had been passed, 
the motive of love of God would naturally seek other 
means to express itself. Thus the motives of expia- 
tion of sin and of obtaining favors from God became 
more and more explicit. But as bodily pain, whether 
of renunciation or of endurance, had come to be 
acknowledged as the ordinary means of expressing 
love for God, it thus became the recognized means 
not only of subduing the lowxr nature, but also of 
atoning for past sin and of supplicating for future 
needs. This, then, was the development and the 
scope of Christian ascetics. 

We confess at the outset that we know of no 
intrinsic reason why suffering should be a necessary 
companion of love. We merely state the fact that 
it is so ; and we appeal to the whole of human ex- 
perience to support the assertion. It may be that 
the renunciation and endurance necessary for the 



120 Was Christ an Ascetic f 

due observance of the natural law and the ten Com- 
mandments fostered the conviction that pain was the 
companion of love ; it may be that the human soul, 
since it was naturally Christian from the beginning, 
sought to anticipate the Christian doctrine of love 
and suffering ; it also may have been part of a divine 
primitive revelation. Our first parent, indeed, seems 
to have needed to pass through the fires of violent 
temptation and renunciation before he could be estab- 
lished in his eternal joy. But whatever may have 
been the origin of the law, a law it is, and a law 
which all must recognize. It is the very foundation 
of asceticism, and once clearly apprehended, it saves 
us from the Scylla of superstitious pain-worship on 
the one hand, and the Charybdis of hedonistic indul- 
gence on the other. 

We must recognize at once that our present life 
is complex in the extreme, and cramful of conflicting 
interests. The Christian doctrine of the effects of 
original sin asserts and accounts for all this. If one 
interest must be followed, another must be aban- 
doned ; and it is the wrench from the interest which 
must be abandoned which causes pain. The more 
interests that have to be cut away, the stronger is 
the attachment to the interests that remain. The 
process is one of concentration of will-strength by 
the destruction of the dissipations of will-strength. 
Hence the man who has thus exercised himself in a 
high degree is to be admired, not so much for the 
amount of suffering he has undergone, but for the 
amount of will-strength that he has acquired. The 
essential and per se element in the process is the 
will-power or love put forth ; the pain caused by 
detachment is what we may call an ''inseparable 
accident." 

With this important distinction before our minds, 



Was Christ an Ascetic f 121 

then, it is easy to see how self-inflicted suffering is 
effectual both in subduing rebellious nature and in 
obtaining forgiveness of past sins and in pleading 
for future favors. It is not that Almighty God 
derives any pleasure at the sight of suffering; that 
would show Him to be the most cruel of all beings. 
No; God dislikes and hates the suffering as much 
as any one, but He allows it because, from the na- 
ture of the case, it is necessary for the generation, 
the strengthening, and the perfection of love. The 
perverse promptings of lower nature are obstacles 
to the free exercise of love ; sin is the actual with- 
holding of love; the request for future favors is 
merely asking for more love ; therefore it is that Al- 
mighty God, while regretting the contingent suffer- 
ing, allows it for the sake of the love of which it is 
the condition, the measure, and the expression. 

The neglect of this distinction is the source of 
false asceticism ; while much of the unpopularity of 
true asceticism is traceable to the same cause. But 
the Church has ever been on her guard lest a per- 
verted system should obtain wathin her fold. The 
history of the Flagellants in the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries suffices to show us the mind 
and attitude of the Church with regard to self-in- 
flicted suffering. These misguided zealots in their 
bodily mortifications were not doing more than the 
saints had done, but their motives were wTong, and 
so they brought upon themselves the condemnation 
of Pope Clement VI. 

Asceticism of this kind is nothing else but a su- 
perstitious pain-worship. On the part of the suf- 
ferer the motive is pride; on the part of the on- 
looker, morbid curiosity. It was an asceticism 
something like this which Our Lord rebuked in 
the intolerant austeritv of the Pharisees and formal- 



122 Was Christ an Ascetic? 

ists of the towns as well as in the aloofness of the 
dwellers in the desert. It was also an asceticism 
something like this to which Our Lord showed no 
special favor, the exaggerated asceticism on which 
Our Lord may be said by His teaching and example 
to have put a curb, the overrated asceticism to which 
the Hebrews (like all other Asiatics) have a ten- 
dency, and which considers those who run into 
extravagances of bodily mortification as especially 
holy. It was not fasting that Our Lord rebuked, 
but the perverted motive of fasting. ''And when 
you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they 
disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men 
to fast." Hence, too, when Christ was asked : 
''Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees 
fast, but Thy disciples do not fast?" He replied: 
"Can the children of the marriage fast as long as the 
Bridegroom is with them? As long as they have 
the Bridegroom with them, they can not fast. But 
the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be 
taken away from them, and then they shall fast in 
those days." It would be, perhaps, more true to 
say that it was a sense of proportion that Our Lord 
insisted upon rather than a sense of moderation ; 
for occasions might arise in which very extreme 
mortification w^ould be necessary : "If thy right eye 
scandalize thee, pluck it out . . . and if thy right 
hand scandalize thee, cut it off." 

Indeed, if Our Lord had looked upon suffering 
as something good, beautiful, or admirable in itself. 
He would not have exercised His divine power so 
often in relieving and destroying it. It was always 
with Him a means subordinated to an end, and in 
so far as its infliction was good for the perfection of 
a soul, He counseled it; but also in so far as its 
removal was good for a soul, He removed it. Thus, 



IVas Christ an Ascetic f 123 

in the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, 
Our Lord would have compassion on the multitude 
and would not send them away fasting, lest they 
should faint by the way. But He made the oc- 
casion an opportunity of showing His power over 
the physical laws of bread, and so prepared the 
minds of the people for His teaching on the Holy 
Eucharist. Similarly He healed the man at the 
pool Probatica, to illustrate His power to give spir- 
itual health and strength. Likewise He healed the 
man born blind, to manifest His office as the Light 
of the world. 

No. Health or sickness, joy or sorrow, suffering 
or pleasure may be equally efficient as means of sal- 
vation. They are all God's gifts and must be used 
so far, and only so far, as they are helpful to salva- 
tion. This sounds something like the teaching of St. 
Ignatius, and also, we trust, not unlike the teaching 
of St. Paul. 

When w^e take up a spiritual book we naturally 
expect to find theological terms used in their true 
meaning. Having in view, then, the sense of the 
word ''asceticism" as we have tried to define and 
explain it, we venture to say that the expression 
"Our Lord was no ascetic" is decidedly misleading. 
Our Lord surely was, par excellence, the great 
Ascetic, the Model of all ascetics. 

The very reason of His assuming human flesh was 
to raise human nature from the depths into which 
it had fallen through Adam's sin. The crucifixion 
was the great act by which the sins of all time wxre 
atoned for. The sacrifice of the cross was the one 
act by which all divine graces and favors were to be 
applied to the souls of men. And not only in these 
final and more prominent acts of His life did Our 
Lord show Himself to be the great x\scetic, but also 



124 ^^^ Christ an Ascetic f 

in the daily acts of His life. We are told expressly 
that He fasted forty days and forty nights. "And 
He ate nothing in those days ; and when they were 
ended He was hungry.'' True, we do not read that 
Our Lord scourged Himself, or wounded Himself, 
or crucified Himself. But, according to the theology 
of St. Thomas, Our Lord was at least the indirect 
cause of all these sufferings, in so far as He could 
have hindered them and did not do so. Our Lord 
had the power to frustrate the efforts of His perse- 
cutors, first, by rendering them unable or unwilling 
to kill Him, secondly by rendering His own body 
impassible. However, as He did not choose to use 
this power. He is said to be the indirect cause of 
His own Passion and death. This aspect of His 
life is especially marked in the fourth Gospel. Our 
Lord, of His own accord, goes to Gethsemane be- 
cause He knows that Judas will come there to seek 
Him. He will not allow St. Peter to do anything to 
hinder His sufferings : "The chalice which My 
Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" He 
allows the charges of being a blasphemer and false 
prophet to fall through, because He wishes to escape 
death by stoning, in order to obtain the more painful 
death by crucifixion. Indeed, He expressly claims 
this office of self-immolation when to Pilate He 
says: ''Thou shouldst not have any power against 
Me, unless it were given thee from above." And so 
He carries out His design from the moment when 
He spontaneously sets forth on the Via Dolorosa, 
to the moment when He deliberately bows His head 
and gives up the ghost. Surely all this is but asceti- 
cism, in the sense we have here set forth. And 
surely the life of St. Paul, who has best interpreted 
the spirit of Christ to the Western world, exhibits but 
the same principles. Indeed, have not the saints of 



Was Christ an Ascetic f 125 

all ages since Our Lord been merely endeavoring 
to walk in His footsteps and imitate His Passion? 
And what is this but the ascetic life ? The real differ- 
ence between the asceticism of those saints who prac- 
ticed great austerities and that of the ordinary Chris- 
tian is not one of kind, but of degree. The objects 
and motives are the same ; only the manner and 
extent are different. 

Herein, perhaps, we may recognize the truth which 
the writer aims at. We are living in an age which 
is not attracted by the methods of an Antony, a 
Stylite, or a Benedict Joseph Labre. The life of a 
pillar-saint excites no emulation in a people pos- 
sessed of a strong devotion to hygiene and cleanli- 
ness. Therefore it is that, while insisting on the 
motives which give the essence to asceticism, we 
counsel and practice a modified form of it. ''Quid- 
quid recipitur, recipitiir secundum modum re dpi- 
entis/' What is moderate in one age is excessive 
in another; and we venture to think that the mod- 
eration taught by St. Ignatius in the sixteenth cen- 
tury would scarcely pass as such in the twentieth ; 
for instance, where the saint advises that, in affixing 
the catenella care should be taken that it pierce not 
to the bone, and in taking the discipline that no 
bones be broken. The principle, however, of St. Ig- 
natius is the only key to life's problem and must 
eventually prevail. 

A recent writer"^' has drawn a striking compari- 
son between the saint of Loyola and Count Leo 
Tolstoi. The two men stand for the two predom- 
inant theories of life which are now struggling for 
the ascendancy. -The asceticism of Tolstoi is 
Buddhistic. His ideal is the extinction of the race. 

*Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) in The Science of 
Life. 



126 Was Christ an Ascetic f 

''He entreats the minister of state, the man of learn- 
ing, the doctor, the lawyer, the professor, the artist, 
the clerk — not to think, not to argue, not to analyze, 
but to dig in the fields. . . . Tolstoi is a disillusioned 
man. There is disillusion in every line of his 
masterly novels, and it is disillusion which even the 
saddest of us can not always accept.'' His exaggera- 
tions may be said to culminate in his views on mar- 
riage, the very substance of which he regards as so 
much unchastity. The asceticism of St. Ignatius is 
Catholic. His ideal is the perfection of the race. 
The intelligence and will are to be used, developed 
to their fullest capacity, and directed to the service 
of God. Man is to cultivate an indifference so that 
he wish no more for health than for sickness, for 
riches than for poverty, for a long life than for a 
short one. To acquire this indifference, d(Diirj(jii> 
is absolutely necessary. From the days of John the 
Baptist until now, "the kingdom of heaven sufifereth 
violence and the violent bear it aw^ay." These are 
the words of Christ. Asceticism certainly has a 
grave role to fulfil in this age, and there is not much 
danger of its value being over-estimated either in 
England or America. 'Tts functions will ever be 
remedial and transitional.'' Yes; remedial just in 
so far as the whole of this life is remedial of sin 
and sinful inclination; transitional in so far, and 
only in so far, as this whole miserable life of ours 
is transitional.* 

*Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard, in American Ecclesiastical 
Review, September, 1904. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Zbc Butiea ot a IRelt^ious toward ©oD.— B IRelt^tous 
SboulD JBelong Bntlreli^ to ©oD» 

^T^LUTARCH tells US that in ancient Rome, when 
'-^ a bride entered the house of her spouse, she 
spoke these words : ''Where Caius is, there is Caia," 
as if to say : ''Where thy will is, O my bridegroom, 
there is mine." Jesus Christ demands the same of a 
soul whom He has chosen for His spouse : "Son, 
give Me thy heart" (Prov. xxiii. 26). My daugh- 
ter, My spouse, all that I ask of you is your heart, 
your will. When God created our first parents, 
He turned His eyes not on their hands, but on their 
hearts : "He set His eye upon their hearts" (Ecclus. 
xvii. 7), because exterior works, if they do not 
spring from the heart, if they are not animated by 
love, are of no value in His sight. The sanctity of a 
spouse of Christ consists in the union of her heart 
with the Heart of God. All her beauty is within. 

St. Bernard says that Almighty God wills to be 
feared as our King, honored as our Father, and 
loved as our Spouse. Hence, it follows that, frorn 
a consecrated virgin. His spouse. He will bear any 
shortcoming rather than a defect of love, that is, the 
cherishing of any inclination not for Him. This is 
what is meant at the profession of the vows when 
the Bishop gives the blessed veil, saying: "Receive 
this veil, that henceforth you look no more upon 
creatures, and banish from your heart every inclina- 
tion and desire that has not God for its object." 
The human heart can not exist without love. It 
must love either God or creatures. Detached from 



128 The Duties of a Religious tozvard God. 

creatures, the soul will love God. The Holy Ghost 
admonishes us, therefore, to keep our heart free 
from every inclination not for God : ''With all 
watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out 
from if (Prov. iv. 23). To become holy, the soul 
must banish from the heart whatever is not God. 
She should pray with David : "Create a clean heart 
in me, O God!" (Ps. 1. 12.) Give me a heart that 
is empty of all inclinations to creatures. ''Woe to 
them that are of a double heart!" (Ecclus. ii. 14) 
says God in Holy Scripture. In The Imitation we 
are admonished: "Son, if thou placest thy peace in 
any person,, for thy own gratification, thou shalt be 
unsettled and entangled. In Me the love of thy 
friend ought to stand, and for Me is he to be loved. 
How little soever it be, if anything be inordinately 
loved and regarded, it keepeth thee back from the 
sovereign good, and corrupteth the soul." 

God can not reign perfectly in a heart as long as 
even a spark of inordinate desire is habitually cher- 
ished therein. The least earthly attachment hinders 
the creature from belonging entirely to the Creator. 
As long as St. Teresa kept a little disorderly affec- 
tion in her heart for one of her relatives, she could 
not belong wholly to God ; but after she had re- 
nounced every inordinate inclination to creatures, 
and consecrated her heart solely to God, she became 
worthy to hear the following words from the Lord : 
"Teresa, now art thou wholly Mine; now am I 
wholly thine !" Our one heart and our one soul 
ought to be given whole and entire to Him who 
alone deserves all our love, who has done and suf- 
fered so much to gain that love. "One to One !" 
exclaims St. Egidius. God wishes all men to love 
Him with their whole hearts. His command is ad- 
dressed to all : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 



The Duties of a Religious toward God. 129 

with thy whole heart'' (Matt. xxii. 37). But espe- 
cially is this command directed to those souls that 
have chosen the religious life. A Brother once told 
St. Joseph of the Cross that he had become a Re- 
ligious in order to save his soul. "No, my son," re- 
plied the saint, ''you have come to the convent not 
only to save your soul, but also to become a saint ; 
for it ought to be the aim of a Religious to love God 
as much as possible.'' Ah ! if the Religious does not 
love God with her whole heart, if she does not be- 
long entirely to Him, where shall He look for one 
who has given her whole heart to Him? ''This is 
the generation of them that seek Him, of them that 
seek the face of the God of Jacob" (Ps. xxiii. 6). 

Forget everything else, and think only of keeping 
your whole heart for that Lord who has chosen you 
from among so many, and indeed, only that you 
may love Him. Yes, love Him with your whole 
heart, for Jesus wills that His spouse should be "a 
garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up" (Cant. iv. 
12) ; a garden whose entrance is closed to all but 
the heavenly Bridegroom, a sealed fountain, for this 
Bridegroom is jealous of the love of His bride. He 
commands her : "Put Me as a seal upon thy heart, 
as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death" 
(Cant. viii. 6). O religious soul, do not divide your 
heart ! Belong entirely to Him who alone deserves 
an infinite love. Say with the Psalmist : "What 
have I in heaven? and besides Thee what do I de- 
sire upon earth? Thou art the God of my heart, 
and my portion forever!" (Ps. Ixxii. 25, 26.) 

A Religious whose aim is to become a saint, and 
who loves God above all things and with her whole 
heart, will not be found wanting in fraternal char- 
ity ; for the Lord Himself has given the command : 
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 



130 The Duties of a Religious toward God. 

The saints love God. Nobody doubts that fact, 
but there is a tendency to exaggerate it and to say 
that the saints love nobody but God. We read in 
The Psychology of the Saints:"^ ''On the day after 
her clothing, a nun wrote as follows : 'In obedience 
to the rule of the Novitiate I have dropped all my 
correspondence. Sacrifices of the heart and uni- 
versal detachment are what God chiefly requires of 
us, poor women, who have nothing left on this earth 
(having relinquished all — country, home, parents, 
friends).' Having got that far, she pulls herself up 
and continues without even beginning a fresh sen- 
tence : 'Or rather, I ought to say, the whole world is 
ours; for, according to St. Vincent de Paul, our 
love embraces the entire world.' 

"This young Religious was speaking in the lan- 
guage of the saints. Before St. Vincent de Paul, 
St. Catharine of Sienna used to say : 'The reason 
why God's servants love creatures so much is that 
they see how much Christ loves them, and it is one 
of the properties of love to love what is loved by the 
persons we love.' Many other saints, whose lives 
and actions were more hidden than hers, have said 
the same thing, that when Christ crucified takes pos- 
session of a soul. He inspires it with a very great 
tenderness for the humanity for which He died. 
Sanctity demands complete detachment from all 
pleasures 'which are derived from self-love. This 
is a rule which admits of no exception, and it applies 
to spiritual as well as earthly consolations. Ac- 
cording to the great mystics, the end, the chief use 
of dryness and aridities is to detach the soul, not 
from spiritual benefits, but from a selfish and 
sensible love of them. Once self-love is destroyed, 
the barrier is done away with, and not only is there 
Wide Henri Joli, The Psychology of the Saints, p. 159 ff- 



The Duties of a Religious toward God. 131 

no law of detachment from all things, but the soul 
is enjoined to love everything, provided that it does 
so 'for the love of God/ 

''I foresee an objection. I shall be told that loving 
the whole world really means loving no one, and 
that this universal love is precisely what kills the 
natural affections. But is it loving no one to do as 
the saints did when they deprived themselves of 
food and clothing for the sake of the poor; when 
they nursed the sick and even kissed their wounds ; 
when they entertained pilgrims and strangers gra- 
tuitously ; when they founded homes for orphans 
and children ; when they braved the contagion of 
lepers and the plague-stricken with no other pro- 
tection than faith and prayer ; when they freed cap- 
tives at the price of their own liberty, and enfran- 
chised slaves ; when they defended negroes against 
the tyranny of their masters, and, like St, Catharine 
of Sienna, assisted convicts at the hour of death ; 
when they founded refuges for young girls whose 
poverty exposed them to evil, and opened their arms 
to the afflicted and to sinners, for whom they felt 
all Christ's passionate pity and mercy? There is no 
priest, no apostle worthy of the name, who ought 
not to be able to cry out at every hour of the day 
with St. Paul : 'Who is weak and I am not weak, 
who is scandalized and I am not on fire?' Who 
suffers in any way, and I do not suffer with him ? 

"Some people will say : How about the saints, who 
left their families and the world? I answ^er that 
they broke their dearest ties only in order to renew 
them in a different manner, and that this renewal 
was voluntary on their part and in obedience to a 
want of their very nature. St. Catharine of Sienna 
tells us emphatically that nothing has so great an 
influence over the heart of man as love, 'for man 



1^2 The Duties of a Religious toward God. 

was created by love and therefore it is his nature to 
love. Man was created body and soul by love, for 
out of love God created him to His own image 
and likeness, and out of love his parents gave 
him being.' Most of those who have left father 
and mother could re-echo these words of St. Teresa : 
T am only telling the truth, for I remember it dis- 
tinctly, that when I left my father's house I felt pain 
like that which one feels in one's agony, and I do 
not believe that death itself can be more painful. I 
felt as if all my bones were being torn apart.' 

''The great Carmelite saint followed the fortunes 
of her brothers and sisters from the seclusion 
of her cell, took interest in their lives, and gave them 
^ood advice. If faith does not loosen family ties 
with the ordinary believer who know^s that they will 
be continued in the next world, how could it do so 
with a saint like Teresa, who lets us into the secrets 
of her heart when she tells us : T was carried up to 
heaven, and the first persons I saw there were my 
father and mother.' 

''Souls like hers are convinced that not only can 
'no one have too much intelligence,' but also that 
'no one can have too much heart, and that if only 
the intention is pure we should love every creature 
on this earth.' 

"The friendships of the saints are no matter for 
astonishment. Neither is it surprising that 'in the 
history of most of those saints who have re-formed 
or founded religious institutions, we find that the love 
and devotedness of a holy woman exercised a great 
influence over their lives and work.' St. Paula 
stands beside St. Jerome, the Countess Matilda be- 
side St. Gregory VII., St. Clare beside St. Francis 
of Assisi, St. Teresa beside St. John of the Cross, 
St. Jane de Chantal beside St. Francis de Sales." 



The Duties of a Religious toward God. 133 

The author of The Imitation says : ''By two 
wings is man Hfted above earthly things, namely,, 
by simplicity and purity. Simplicity must be in the 
intention, purity in the affection. Simplicity aimeth 
at God, purity apprehendeth Him and tasteth Him. 
No good work will be a hindrance to thee provided 
thou be free interiorly from all inordinate affec- 
tion. If thou aim at and seek after nothing else 
but the will of God and thy neighbor's benefit, then 
shalt thou enjoy interior liberty. If only thy heart 
were right, then every created thing would be to 
thee a mirror of life and a book of holy teaching. 
There is no creature so little and so vile that it show- 
eth not forth the goodness of God.'' Simplicity 
and liberty of spirit are characteristic of the ideal 
Religious, who loves God above all things and with 
her whole heart. 

These virtues are praised most highly by St. 
Francis de Sales, as we read in The Spiritual Di- 
rector: ''Liberty of spirit consists in keeping the 
heart totally disengaged from every created thing, 
that it may follow^ the known will of God. The 
soul which has attained this liberty seeks only that 
the name of God should be sanctified, that His maj- 
esty reign in us, and that His will be done. The 
first mark of this liberty of spirit is not to be at- 
tached to any consolation whatever, but, having 
done our duty, to remain indifferent to everything 
else. Another mark is, that we do not upon any 
account lose our joy and content of mind; for the 
loss of nothing can make him sad who is not fondly 
addicted to anything. The effects of this liberty of 
spirit are a great sweetness of temper, a gentle com- 
plaisance and condescension to whatever is not sin, 
and a disposition easily moved to all actions of vir- 
tue and charity. 



134 The Duties of a Religious toward God. 

"Simplicity is an act of pure charity which has only 
one end, which is to acquire in a perfect manner the 
love of God ; and our souls have obtained this sim- 
plicity, when we have no other object in all we do 
but that. It is an act of refined and immixed char- 
ity. It is that imiim necessarinm, that one thing 
necessary recommended by Our Saviour. Lastly, 
it is an inseparable companion of charity, since it 
aims directly at God, and is inconsistent with any 
mixture of self-interest, for in that case it were 
rather to be called duplicity, which looks two ways, 
than simplicity, which confines and rivets its whole 
view on one only ; that is, it so looks to God, that it 
lends not a glance to any creature. 

"Simplicity quite banishes out of the soul that care 
and solicitude with which many perplex themselves 
unprofitably, in seeking out a great number of 
exercises, and (as they call them) means how they 
may come to love God ; and they imagine that unless 
they do all that the saints have done before them, 
they can never think they have done enough to ob- 
tain it. Poor souls ! they torment themselves to 
find, out a kind of art how to come at the love of 
God, and do not consider that there is no such art 
— -we have merely to love Him ; they imagine that 
there is a kind of mysterious method of gaining this 
love, when plain and artless simplicity alone does 
the whole business. 

"After a soul endowed with simplicity has done 
any action which she judges it is her duty to do, she 
thinks no more of it ; and if it slip into her thoughts 
what others will say or think of her, she endeavors 
to repress that thought and stop the progress of it, 
because she can not endure that anything should 
impede her aim, which is to keep an attentive 
eye to her God, and to increase the love of Him in 



The Duties of a Religious toward God. 135 

her heart. The consideration of creatures is the 
least part of her motive, because she reserves all to 
her Creator. If she see it expedient to do this or 
that, she sets about it, let what God pleases be the 
success of it. Having once done her duty, all her 
care is over; yet, notwithstanding all this, she may 
perhaps feel some kind of trouble, but let her not 
fear it, nor regard it. It is only in the inferior part 
of her soul, nor ought it to shock us as long as we 
do not deliberately consent to the suggestion." 

The Blessed Mother Julie Billiart, foundress of 
the Institute of the Sisters of Notre Dame, possessed 
this simplicity and spiritual liberty in a remarkable 
degree. This liberty of spirit in the blessed ser- 
vant of God is one of the points to which Mere St. 
Joseph, in her Memoirs, calls special attention : 
"Our Mother," she writes, ''was by nature exceed- 
ingly ardent and active, full of life and fire ; she suf- 
fered, moreover, from an afifection of the nerves 
wdiich generally gives rise to reverie and imagina- 
tions ; yet she was absolutely free from such influ- 
ences ; her mind w^as clear, accurate and singularly 
free. She was never preoccupied, never lost in her 
thoughts. No matter at what moment you accosted 
her, you were sure to find her at liberty ; the busi- 
ness on hand was always welcomed by her, if it re- 
lated to God's interests. The lively faith which ani- 
mated her filled her with sentiments of the deep- 
est respect and veneration for bishops and priests, 
but the simplicity of her soul never allowed her to 
give way to bustle or anxiety when she was treating 
with prelates or the great ones of this world. How 
often have I seen her on such occasions keeping her 
mind fixed on God, awaiting the favorable moment, 
as peaceful under contradiction as though all had 
gone well with her. And if she were obliged to 



is6 The Duties of a Religious toward God. 

offer some explanation, it was easy to see by her 
limpid and facile language, and by the very expres- 
sions she used, that she had but one object in view — 
the glory of God and the salvation of souls." 

As her biographer writes : "Her solid faith and 
her ardent charity were the basis of her unshaken 
confidence. Neither the sufferings of a long and 
cruel infirmity, nor the privations of poverty, nor 
the unjust treatment of those who ought to have 
been her friends and protectors, could trouble the 
peace of her soul, or shake for an instant the trust 
she had placed in God alone.'' 

We read in The Imitation: ''Some there are that 
resign themselves, but it is with some exception; 
for they do not wholly trust in God and therefore 
are busy in providing for themselves. Some also 
at first oft'er all, but afterwards, being assailed by 
temptation, they return again to what they had left, 
and therefore make no progress in virtue. These 
shall neither attain to the true liberty of a pure heart, 
nor to the grace of a delightful familiarity with Me, 
unless they first entirely resign themselves and offer 
themselves a daily sacrifice to Me, without which 
union of fruition neither is nor shall subsist. For- 
sake thyself, resign thyself, and thou shalt enjoy a 
great inward peace. Give all for all ; seek nothing ; 
call nothing back ; stand purely and with a full con- 
fidence before Me, and thou shalt possess Me. Thou 
shalt be free in heart, and the darkness shall not 
weigh thee down. Aim at this, pray for this, de- 
sire this, that thou mayest be divested of all self- 
seeking; that thou mayest die to thyself, and eter- 
nally live to Me. 

''O Lord, true glory and holy exultation are to 
glory in Thee and not in one's self ; to rejoice in Thy 
name, not in one's own strength ; to find pleasure 



The Duties of a Religious toward God. 137 

in no creature, save only for Thy sake. Let 
Thy name be praised, not mine ; let Thy work 
be magnified, not mine. Thou art my glory ; Thou 
art the exultation of my heart. In Thee will I glory 
and rejoice all the day; but for myself, I will glory 
in nothing save in my infirmities.'' 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

XLbc iBBBcncc ot iperfection — tTbc TDlnton ot all 
IDlrtues in Cbariti^^ 

^Tt. Catharine of Sienna says in her Dialogue 
J^~^ on Consummated Perfection: 

''I saw that many say many things, and speak 
differently of the virtues by which God is to be 
worthily served. And yet man's capacity is but 
small, his understanding dull, his memory weak. 
So that he can not comprehend many things, or 
retain those he is able to perceive. And hence, 
although many set themselves to learn perfection, 
few are found to reach it." 

Truly, when the soul is still young and unformed 
in spirit — having withal many duties to attend to 
that divide its attention, yet aspiring to the best 
things — it is apt to turn with anxious heart to the 
masters of spiritual life, and would fain know from 
them in one brief sentence the work it has to do 'for 
God. ''Vidi ninltos miilta dicere/' Many authors 
say many things. Who will give me in one word 
the essence of perfection? I have not time to read 
long treatises with the care which they require ; yet 
my mind wants a principle, a light within, by which 
to see my way, to judge, to order and regulate the 
works of life. 

Sometimes it seems that the will of God will suffice 
for everything, and that conformity and abandon- 
ment thereto will carry me through all duties and 
difficulties. But grave authors speak of the restora- 
tion of the divine image and resemblance in the 
soul as bringing to man the reformation and perfec- 



The Essence of Perfection. 139 

tion of his nature."^ Then there is the principle of 
conformity to Christ our Lord, as the model of per- 
fection. Again, St. Paul seems to make the work of 
spiritual life consist in putting off the ''old man'' and 
putting on the ''new man," by mortifying the life of 
the flesh, and living according to the Spirit (Eph. iv. 
22). St. Augustine's view of Christian virtue is that 
love is everything, and the other virtues but different 
forms of the one love. Accordingly he defines virtue 
as being simply "the order of love."t St. Thomas 
and St. Bonaventure place our perfection radically 
and essentially in charity, as being the bond of divine 
union and the principle of supernatural action.:}: 
Lallemant considers purity of heart and the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit as "the two poles of all spiritu- 
ality, by means of which souls attain to perfection,"§ 
while Rodriguez places perfection in the ordinary 
actions of life.|[ 

Are all of these right together, or are there differ- 
ent plans of perfection ? How much should I like to 
see, as on a target, the one point to aim at and to 
gain! 

Thus might a young soul, high in its aspirations, 
ardent in its affections, hungering and thirsting for 
spiritual life, say w^hen it first turns itself in earnest 
to higher things, and seeks with a kind of avidity 

*Albert Mag., ''de adhcer. Deo," C. 3; Denis Carthus., 
*'de laude Vitce Solit." A. i ; Walter Hilton, The Scale of 
Perfection, B. i., P. 3, C. 2 & 3, etc. 

Y'Virtus est ordo amoris." — St. Aug., ''de Civ. Dei," 
L. XV., C. 22. See also St. Aug., ''de Morib. Eccles." L. 
i., C. 15, and ''de doctrina Christiana," L. iii., C. 10. 

tSt. Thomas, 2 2, Q. 184, Art. 3, and Quode, ''de Carit./' 
Art. II, ad. 5. St. Bonav., ''Apol. paup." R. i., C. 3, and 
'Tentiloq.;' P. 3, S. 40. 

§Lallemant, Spir. Doctrine, P. 4, C. 2. 

tiRodriguez, Christian Perf., Vol. i., T. ii., C. i. 



140 The Essence of Perfection. 

to satisfy its desires, by drawing from the rich and 
varied stores deposited by the saints and holy writers 
in the treasury of the Church. 

Without doubt there is a central point in spiritual 
life to be aimed at and to be gained, wherein con- 
sists the essence of our perfection. And however 
much spiritual writers may develop their principles, 
and draw out the manifold operations of the Chris- 
tian and religious virtues, unquestionably they point 
to the same center, and that center is undoubtedly the 
love of God, or divine charity."^ All the great prin- 
ciples tend to this or emanate from it. Virtues either 
lead to divine love or proceed from it. Charity is 
the central sun that attracts and quickens them. 
^'What the root is to the tree, what the soul is 
to the body, what the sun is to the world, all this 
is charity to the Christian heart,'' says Lewis of 
Granada, f 

For instance, it must needs be true that all our 
perfection is found in the divine will. For nothing 
is good or desirable apart from the will of God ; and 
the will of man must necessarily derive its perfec- 
tion from union therewith, since "none is good but 
God alone" (Luke xviii. 19), and we are the recipi- 
ents of His goodness. But the question at once 
occurs. Where is the divine will to be found? The 
answer is, in charity. There can be no doubt of this. 
The v/ill of God is either expressed in His Com- 
mandments or signified by His good pleasure. But in 
either way it is embraced and perfectly fulfilled by 
charity alone. For certain it is that charity itself 
is the greatest and first of all the Commandments . 
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole 
heart and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole 

*St. Aelred, Spec. Caritatis, L. i., C. 16. 
tLewis de Gran., ''de perf. amor. Dei," C. i. 



The Essence of Perfection. 141 

mind. This is the greatest and the first Command- 
ment" (Matt. xxii. 37). Further, Our Lord declares 
that the keeping of the Commandments is the result 
of our love ; so that by rightly loving Him we do 
the divine will, and we deflect from that divine will 
when we fail in our love. 'Tf any one love Me, he 
will keep My word. . . . He that loveth Me not, 
keepeth not My words" (John xiv. 23, 24). Hence 
''all the Law and the Prophets depend upon the law 
of love" (Matt. xxii. 40) ; that is, the teaching of 
the Prophets and the details of the Law are ordained 
to the love of God and of our neighbor, which is 
charity; or when this is perfect, they proceed from 
its principle, and become so many different opera- 
tions of the one love. And the words of the Master 
are echoed by the disciple. St. Paul declares charity 
to be the fulfilment of the Law. ''All the Law is 
fulfilled in one word" (Gal. v. 14). "Love is the 
fulfilling of the Law" (Rom. xiii. 10) ; the reason 
of which is that love is the spring of our actions ; 
and if it is only rightly ordered love it moves us to 
the observance of every law. Who is more obedient 
to the law than a loving soul? Its love it is that 
moves it to obey. So well did St. Augustine under- 
stand this that he hesitates not to say, ''Love, and 
do what you will,""^ being persuaded that we shall 
not be moved to act wrongly while our love, which 
is the spring of action, is right. Moreover, "the 
end of the Commandment is charity" (i Tim. i. 5) ; 
which tells us that the various declarations of God's 
will all point to divine charity as their one object. 

If we consider the w^ill of God as signified by His 
good pleasure in the occurrences of daily life, what 
is it but charity that brings us into prompt, easy, 

'^"Dilige, et fac quod vis." — St. Aug., Tract 7 in Ep. 
Joan. 



142 The Essence of Perfection. 

and sweet compliance with this holy will? Who 
seeks to please the Beloved more than a loving soul ? 
It is the "true lover," as St. Teresa says, who "loves 
everywhere" r and it is this very love that leads it 
to seek the divine will, and to embrace it in what- 
ever way it comes. For "love spurs us on to do 
great things, and makes all that is bitter sweet and 
savory."f Let us listen again to the teaching of 
St. Catharine of Sienna. Seeing that many teachers 
say many things, she humbly asks of God that she 
may receive some brief instruction in the way of 
perfection that will embrace in a few words the 
doctrine of the inspired books and holy writers, and 
so help her to serve God worthily, and thus attain 
to eternal happiness. The divine Teacher then ad- 
dresses her : "Know that the salvation and perfection 
of My servants stand in this one thing, that they 
do My will alone, ever striving to fulfil it in all 
things ; that they attend to Me, and serve Me every 
moment of their lives. The more diligently they 
apply themselves to this, the nearer they approach 
perfection, since thus they are in union with Perfec- 
tion itself. ".i: 

She then ardently desires to do the divine will ; 
but knows not clearly in what things it may be found, 
and therefore beseeches that she may be informed of 
this also ; in answer to which it is said to her : 'Tf 
thou seekest to know My will, that thou may est per- 
fectly fulfil it, behold in one word that which it is : 
that thou shouldst love Me to the utmost of thy 
power without ceasing; that thou shouldst love Me 
with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy 
strength. C3n the fulfilment of this precept thy per- 

*St. Teresa, Foundat., C. 5. 

"^The Imitation, B. iii., C. 5. 

JSt. Cath. Sien., Dial, on Consuin. Perfection. 



The Essence of Perfection. 143 

fection depends ; and therefore it is written that 'the 
end of the Commandment is charity/ and 'love is the 
fulfilHng of the Law/ ''* 

Understanding from this that the divine will and 
her own perfection are to be found in the perfect 
love of God, she desires, in the ardor of her soul, 
to give herself to this perfect love. She is then 
instructed in the means of attaining to the perfection 
of charity, by entire mortification, purity of heart, 
and total abandonment to God. Enlightened by this 
heavenly doctrine, she acknowledges that which is 
the practical point in spiritual science, namely, "By 
how much the more a man dies to himself, by so 
much more he lives to God/'f 'This is the ''game 
of love/'t 

If, again, we place perfection — as we must — in 
conformity to Jesus Christ our Lord, as the model 
of perfection, we are at once led to inquire by what 
means we are to attain to this conformity. When 
Our Lord says, "Learn of Me,'' "He that followeth 
Me walketh not in darkness,'' the question immedi- 
ately arises, How are we to follow Christ? The 
answer is, that Our Lord's way is the way of perfect 
love. He is the divine Lover of God and of men. 
For the love of God and of men He became incar- 
nate, lived on earth, taught the law of love and 
the life of love, suffered for love, and died for love ; 
sent down the Spirit of His love upon the Church, 
to be the ruling power of our lives and actions, by 
"the charity of God poured forth in our hearts" 
(Rom. V. 5), and left us the marvelous gift of Him- 
self to the end of the world, in the mystery of love 
on the altar, wherein He dwells as the divine Lover 

*St. Cath. Sien., Dial, on Consum. Perfection. 

■flbid. 

tSuso, Etern. Wisd., C. 9. 



144 The Essence of Perfection. 

in the midst of those He loves — working with us, 
nourishing and perfecting His Hfe of love in the 
souls of men. When, therefore, Our Lord says, 
''F'ollow Me," it is not with the steps of the body, 
but with the love of the soul, that He desires to be 
follow^ed, as St. Ambrose tells us.''' As St. Paul had 
also said, "Be ye followers of God, and walk in love, 
as most dear children" (Eph. v. 2). Truly, Our 
Lord, in His sacred humanity, is the perfect model 
of perfect love : whether we consider Him in His 
joyful, sorrowful, or glorious mysteries, perfect 
charity reigns throughout all. The faculties of His 
human soul ever maintain themselves by the power 
of the love that governs them, in subjection to the 
Divinity; so that in all their operations the love of 
God is their ruling principle. This, indeed, is the 
life of charity — for God's will and love to govern 
the human will and love. His light to illumine the 
intelligence. His remembrance to fill the memory, 
and then for the operations of the entire man to 
proceed under the influence and guidance of the 
Divine Spirit : so that thus the creature becomes the 
recipient of God's life, light, love, and movement, 
and is made a sharer in His blessedness, and a fit 
instrument in His hands for the good of others. 
Happy the life which is thus pervaded in all its 
parts by the Spirit of God. ''Whosoever are led 
by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" 
(Rom. viii. 14). Thus it is by charity that we fol- 
low Our Lord in the way of perfection. 'T in 
them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made 
perfect in one" (John xvii. 23). 'Tf you speak to 
Christ," says St. Catharine of Sienna, writing of 
a good Religious, "and say, 'Who is this soul?' He 

"^''Sequi jubet, non corporis gressu, sed mentis affectuf* 
St. Amb., in Lucani, C. 5, v. 27. 



The Essence of Perfection. 145 

will answer, 'It is another Myself, made so by per- 
fect love/ "* 

If, again, we take perfection as shown forth by 
a full and faithful exercise of the Christian virtues 
and counsels, so that the life of a man is seen to 
be justly balanced, rightly ordered, and adorned with 
Christ-like virtues, each in its proper time and 
place, we are obliged to own that the supernatural 
beauty of such a life is the effect and consequence 
of a vivifying charity within the soul. Charity is 
to be reckoned as the motive-cause of all such 
virtues, in so far as they are w^orthy of God and 
heaven. As St. Thomas says, "Charity, aiming at 
the ultimate end as its object, moves the other virtues 
to action. For the virtue which regards the ultimate 
end always commands the virtues which have regard 
to the means. And therefore the merit of eternal 
life first belongs to charity, then to the other virtues, 
according as their acts are prompted by charity. 
Hence charity is the principle of all good works 
referred to the last end." 

It is true, indeed, that the natural virtues may 
exist apart from charity, at least in an imperfect 
degree ; but we are considering ourselves now in the 
supernatural order of the Christian life, incorporated 
with Christ, participating, therefore, in His Spirit, 
and living in reference to our ultimate end. As 
such, charity becomes "soul of our soul," "life of our 
life," and consequently the principle and form of 
the soul's virtues, when wx are true, that is, to the 
supernatural principle ; for the natural principle still 
lives, and often hinders the force of charity by mov- 
ing prcBter iinem. But if, as true Christians, we 
move by the Spirit of Christ (Gal. v.) ''in ordine 
ad finem/' charity hereby beco'mes our moving-prin- 
*St. Cath. Sien., Letter, 129. 



146 The Essence of Perfection. 

ciple, the life and soul of our actions. The reason of 
this is that God is our ultimate end ; and the love of 
Him as such moves us to acts of virtue, as means 
by which we may advance to Him. This love is 
charity. "By charity/' says St. Thomas, ''the acts 
of all other virtues are ordered to their last end ; in 
virtue of which charity becomes the form of the 
other virtues, extending itself as the ruling power 
to all the actions of human life.'' 

It would seem, however, that, ordinarily speak- 
ing, years of faithful practice of the moral virtues 
as opportunities occur would be required before 
charity holds them as with reins in her hand, 
governing thereby the whole man, and moving him 
to action promptly, easily, and sweetly. And there- 
fore the majority of those who exhibit in a fair 
measure the Christian virtues in daily life would 
perhaps rather be tending, by the practice of these 
virtues, tow^ard the perfection of charity than enjoy- 
ing their exercise as the results of such charity, in 
calm and sweet possession of the soul. This agrees 
with the teaching of the Abbot Moses to Cassian : 
'Tasting, watching, meditation, privation, are not 
themselves perfection, but the instruments by which 
we may acquire perfection. They are not the object 
of our profession, but the means by which we may 
obtain it. It becomes us, therefore, to use these 
means with reference to our end, which is charity. 
What will it avail us to perform with punctuality our 
ordinary exercises if the main purpose for which we 
perform them is eluded? To this end, therefore, 
should be referred our solitude, our fasts, our daily 
employments — yea, every penitential exercise, and 
every virtue, that by these means our hearts may be 
preserved in calm, and thus we may ascend to the 
perfection of charity/' 



The Essence of Perfection. 147 

St. Thomas also points to this in his teaching on 
the active and contemplative life; taking now with 
St. Gregory the contemplative life for the loving 
adherence of the soul to God by charity, and the 
active life for the exercise of- the moral virtues."^ 
The Angelic Doctor says : ''The active life is a 
preparation to the contemplative; and therefore 
until one has attained to perfection in active life he 
can not reach to the contemplative, except in its 
commencement, and imperfectly. For as long as a 
man has difficulty in practicing the moral virtues, 
his attention is anxiously engaged with them, which 
hinders his devotedness to contemplation. But 
when his active life is perfect, then, having the 
moral virtues in command, he is able without im- 
pediment to give himself to contemplation. And in 
proportion to his perfection in active life he is able 
to unite both action and contemplation together.''! 
'Tn this way we proceed from the active life to the 
contemplative ; and from the contemplative life we 
return to the active, that action may be directed by 
contemplation. "t Hence St. Gregory says that ''he 
who desires to gain the citadel of contemplation 
must first prove himself in the field of action. ''§ 

From this we see that charity, while yet im- 
perfect, mioves us to the exercise of the Christian 
virtues, in order to gain her own perfection ; and 
when she has attained to the repose of contem- 
plative love, she returns to the domain of activity in 
calm and sweet possession of the soul, to animate, 
direct, sustain, and govern the occupations of the 
active life. Thus she brings to man both his essential 

*St Thorn., 2 2, Q. 181, Art. i. 
^Ihicl, 3 Sen.. D. 35. A.rt. 3, q. 3. 
tlhid., 2 2, Q. 182, Art. 4 ad 2. 
§St. Greg., Moral., Lib. vi., C. 17. 



148 The Essence of Perfection. 

and accidental perfection, and the beginning of his 
future beatitude in heaven. ''GodHness is profitable 
to all things ; having promise of the life that now 
is, and of that which is to come" (i Tim. iv. 8). 
Happy is the soul which thus attains to the habitual 
union of its powers in God ! ''They now unite to pro- 
duce one harmonious sound," says St. Catharine of 
Sienna, ''like the chords of a musical instrument. The 
powers of the soul are the great chords, the senses 
of the body the smaller ones. And when all these 
are used to the praise of God, and in the service of 
our neighbor, they produce one sound, like that of 
a harmonious organ. All the saints have touched 
this organ, and drawn forth musical tones. The 
first who sounded it was the sweet and loving 
Word, whose humanity, united to His Divinity, 
made sweet music on the wood of the cross, and 
all His servants have learned of Him, as of their 
Master, to give forth simiilar music, some in one 
way and some in another, divine Providence giving 
all the instruments on which to play."* 

What, now, shall we say to Rodriguez when he 
places our perfection in the ordinary actions of life ? 
It is clear when he says this that he speaks of the 
material of our perfection, and that he presupposes 
charity in our actions as their form or animating 
spirit. "All our actions," says he, "be nothing else 
but the effects of the divine love that animates us. 
And as in the Temple of Solomon there was nothing 
but what was of gold, or covered with gold, so let 
there be nothing in you which is not either an act or 
an effect of the love of God."f 

Further, as already said, charity as a habit, being 
our animating principle, has for the gaining of its 

*St. Cath. Sien., Dial, C. 147. 

tRodriguez, Christian Perf., Vol. i., T. iii., C. 8. 



The Essence of Perfection. 149 

own perfection to put itself forth to action; and 
if it act not, it is not true charity. The perfection 
of virtue is not its habit, but its act.* The habit is 
ordained to its act, as the sword to its use. A man is 
virtuous not because he can act virtuously, but be- 
cause he does so. And the habit of virtue, to insure 
its perfection, must produce its acts as readily and 
perfectly as possible. Rightly, therefore, does Rodri- 
guez make perfection reside in our ordinary actions, 
as the form resides in the matter, the soul in the 
body, and the kernel in the shell. But the essential 
constituent of perfection ever remains in the inherent 
habit of habits, disposed to its acts, viz., charity 
uniting with God, and proceeding to action from its 
principle of love. This is the assimilation of the 
creature to the Creator, apart from which there 
can be no perfection. The ordinary works of life 
are thus the divinely appointed means and ways by 
which and in which the habit of love energizes and 
reduces itself to act, thus exercising and expanding 
its life and power, intensively and extensively, and so 
enabling the soul by repeated acts to develop the 
habit of love, by means of which it advances to 
and finally attains its perfection. 

Although, therefore, perfection is to be found in 
our ordinary actions, they depend for this perfection 
on the charity that animates them ; and without 
this it is certain that they are worthless, so far as 
supematwral worth and merit are concerned. Who 
teaches this more emphatically than the inspired^ 
Apostle? "If I speak with the tongues of men and 
of angels, and have not charity, I am become as 
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I 
should have prophecy, and should know all mys- 
teries, and all knowledge ; and if I should have all 
*St. Thorn., I 2, Q. 3, Art. 2. 



150 The Essence of Perfection. 

faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have 
not charity, I am nothing. And if I should dis- 
tribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should 
deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, 
it profiteth me nothing" (i Cor. xiii. i). Here we 
see that not only ordinary actions, but those the 
most exalted, reckon for nothing apart from charity, 
that is, in supernatural worth and merit; which is 
not difficult to understand, for an action without love 
is a body without a soul. Hence St. Augustine said 
that "where there is no love, no good work is im- 
puted, nor is a work rightly called good'' ;'^ as on the 
other hand he says, "Love, and do what you will; 
keep to the root of love ; from this nought but good 
springs forth. "f St. Gregory also tells us that it is 
not the outer substance of our actions that God 
regards, but the inner love that animates them. 
"God regards the heart rather than the external 
work. Nor does He consider how much a man 
does, but with how much love he does it.''$ The 
Imitation says the same, in the self -same words. § 

St. Thomas enters carefully into the consideration 
of this point, and teaches that the merit of our out- 
ward actions wholly depends on the charity they 
contain ; speaking always of supernatural merit, in 
reference to the rewards of heaven.f It is the 

*St. Aug., de Gratia Christi, C. 26. 

tSt. Aug., Tract 7 in Epist. Joan. 

tSt. Greg., Horn. 5 in Evang. 

%The Imitation, B. i., C. 15. 

^''Radix merendi est Caritas." — St. Thorn., 2 2, Q. 182, 
Art. 2. The influx of charity into our actions varies in- 
definitely in degree, according as the habit of charity is 
more or less developed and disposed to its acts. In general 
the influx may be actual or virtual. Actual, when we are di- 
rectly prompted by divine love, as our principle and our end ; 
virtual, when charity's virtue continues in our actions from 



The Essence of Perfection. 151 

inward spirit which is the test and measure of merit 
in the outward act. So that the active or the con- 
templative Hfe respectively will be the more meri- 
torious according to the degree of charity either 
may contain. A small action done with great charity 
is more meritorious than a great action done with 
small charity; and the degrees of glory in heaven 
will be according to the degrees of charity on earth. 
Therefore if a man's life and actions are to be 
accounted truly great, and worthy of God and 
heaven, whatever their outward appearance may be, 
they must proceed from a heart animated by the 
principle of divine charity."^ The love of God is to 
be the soul of our actions. As the soul moves the 
body, so divine charity is to move the soul. Is it 
not the inward love of the heart that God requires 
before all things? ''Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, 
and w4th thy whole strength.'' And even in His 
servants . of the Old Law, was it not the ''perfect 
heart" that He looked for? Thus we read that King 
Amasias "did what was good in the sight of the 
Lord, yet not with a perfect heart" (2 Paralip. xxv. 
2). And again: "Solomon's heart was not perfect 
with the Lord" (3 Kings xi. 4). But "the heart of 
x\sa was perfect with the Lord all his days" (3 Kings 
XV. 14). Let us not imagine, then, that God will 

the force of its previous act, and practically influences them 
from its habitual power in the mind and heart. Then, al- 
though not adverted to, charity enters into our actions by 
a virtual inflow, and is therefore still our principle and 
our end. vSo it remains until revoked by some subsequent 
act incompatible with it such as a venial sin, which substi- 
tutes a natural principle and end for charity; which princi- 
ple is cupidity, or self-love, the antagonistic principle to 
charity in the soul. 

*St. Thom., 3 Sent, D. 29. Q. i, A. 2. 



152 * The Essence of Perfection. 

be satisfied with any amount of customable external 
service, if we withhold that which He desires more 
than all. ''My son, give Me thy heart" (Prov. xxiii. 
26). How could it be otherwise? Why should 
God be expected to reward actions which are not 
done for Him — which flow from a simply human 
principle? For natural actions there are natural 
rewards. But if we aim at supernatural rewards, 
then our principle of action must be in proportion 
thereto.* This supernatural principle we have in 
charity, as giving us a participation of God's own 
holy spirit and love. And as we act by it, it com- 
municates its divine virtue to our actions. Thus 
God enters into them, and makes them good, and 
worthy of Him,self ; since He is the only Good, and 
we are the recipients of His goodness. 

If, then, we live in charity, let us see that we act 
by it. "Without actual exercise all virtue vanishes, 
and only a self-pleasing conceit remains.'' f ''If we 
live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" 
(Gal. V. 25).^- Let us learn to separate the precious 
from the vile. If the higher principle of divine love 
has been planted within us, how can we turn from 
it to follow instead the biddings of natural and 
fleshly love? We ought to beware of withdrawing 
ourselves from the action of God and betaking our- 
selves to independent movements of our own. For 
''every plant which My Father hath not planted 
shall be rooted up" (Matt. xv. 13). We ought to 
fear lest, having received so great a power, we neg- 
lect to use it; remembering Our Lord's impressive 
teaching and warning in the parable of the talents, 
and the condemnation of the servant who neglected 

*St Thorn., 3 Sent., D. 18, Art. 2. 

tBalduke, Kingdom of God within the Soul. — Prsef. 

JSt. Thorn., in Pauli Epist. ad Galat. 5. 



The Essence of Perfection. 153 

to turn his talent to account. "Lord, Thou didst 
deliver to me five talents ; behold, I have gained 
other five'' (Matt. xxv. 20). Grace must gain more 
grace ; light more light ; love must advance to higher 
love ; strength get greater strength ; and progress 
serve to further progress. Everything must move 
according to its nature. Every power must put 
forth its proper operation : the mind by thinking, 
the eye by seeing, the hand by working, the foot by 
walking. See in like manner the vast power of 
charity : the power of loving God and doing great 
things for Him ; the power of governing our souls, 
our lives, our actions, according to Him. Do we use 
this power of love as rightly and readily as our in- 
ferior powers ? Does it operate ? Does it put forth 
its acts, governing us, leading us on, and moving us 
according to God? "What more could I do to My 
vineyard that I have not done to it?" After all that 
Our Lord has done to give us His love ; after plant- 
ing us in His choice vineyard of Religion : tending, 
training, nourishing, cultivating our souls, so fitting 
them to yield to Him sweetly and abundantly the 
fruits of pure charity — are we to be found now 
bringing forth the "wild grapes" of our own 
"fleshly loves and fears"? 

The power of charit}^ is for the act of charity, since 
every power is for its proper act."^ "A good man, 
out of a good treasure, bringeth forth good things" 
(Matt. xii. 35). Ought we not, then, fromx the di- 
vine treasure of charity to bring forth divine things, 
viz., charity's own proper, full, and perfect acts? 
Thus perfection resides in the ordinary actions of 
life, in so far as they are animated, prompted, and 
regulated by the principle of charity. And when 
in due time, by great fidelity to the lights and 
*St. Thorn., I 2, Q. 49, Art. 3. 



154 The Essence of Perfection. 

movements of the Holy Spirit, charity has attained 
her full sway within the soul, and moves the facul- 
ties and bodily powers to act promptly, easily, and 
swxetly, then is brought about that happy harmony 
within, whereby the natural man is subdued to the 
spiritual, and the spirit is subdued to God, and we 
live and act no longer according to man, but accord- 
ing to God. Then shine forth the gifts and the 
fruits of the Holy Spirit in the soul wherein the 
divine image is now restored. It has given "all 
for all ;'' and God delights to manifest again the 
life of Christ in mortal flesh. 

Thus whites the illustrious and erudite Domini- 
can, Father Reginald Buckler, in his luminous 
treatise on The Perfection of Man by Charity."^ 

On this same subject Basso says: ''Since God 
loves us so intensely, He wills that we should love 
Him in return with our whole heart, with all our 
love." "What doth the Lord thy God require of 
thee but that thou love Him and serve Him with thy 
whole heart?" says Moses (Deut. x. 12). He prom- 
ises to be Himself our reward if we love Him: "I 
am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great'' 
(Gen. XV. i). The princes of this world reward 
their faithful servants with honors and estates ; but 
Our God bestows on them that love Him nothing less 
than Himself. If we had no other reward to expect, 
would it not be enough for us to know that we shall 
be loved by God in return for the love that we give 
Him? We are assured in many passages of Holy 
Scripture that God loves those that love Him: "I 
love them that love Me" (Prov. viii. 17). Again, 
*'He.that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God 

*By special permission of Father Reginald Buckler, this 
chapter on "Charity: The Essence of Perfection," has been 
inserted here. 



The Essence of Perfection. 155 

in him'' (i John iv. 16). And again Our Lord 
promises : ''He that loveth Me shall be loved of My 
Father, and I will love him" (John xiv. 21). 

Our whole perfection consists in the love of God, 
for love is that virtue which unites us to God. As 
St. Augustine says : ''Love is the bond that unites 
to God." All other virtues avail nothing if not 
accompanied by love. "Love is the fulfilling of the 
Law" (Rom. xiii. 10). St. Augustine is safe, there- 
fore, in saying : "Love, and then do w^hat you will." 
We must observe that perfect love consists in loving 
God for Himself. The love that is given to God 
because of the happiness that is in store for us 
on account of it is a selfish love. It is not love, 
properly speaking ; rather does it belong to the virtue 
of hope. But the love of God for God Himself, 
because He is the everlasting Good, is the love of 
benevolence, and that is the true love of God. A 
story is told in the lives of the Fathers of two broth- 
ers w^ho lived as hermits in the desert. The evil 
spirit inspired one of them with the thought that 
his brother was condemned by God. The simple 
man believed it, and he was so distressed that the 
other asked him the cause of his trouble. On hear- 
ing it, the humble brother replied : "God be praised, 
if such be His holy will ! But I shall, notwithstand- 
ing, love Him as tenderly as I can in this life, for I 
do not love Him through fear of hell or hope of 
heaven, but purely because He deserves to be loved 
above all things." Not long after an angel appeared 
to the deluded hermit, and told him that his brother 
w^as, indeed, among the number of the elect. 

We, too, must love God for Himself, and because 
He deserves our love. If we recall the tokens of 
His great love for us, we must, at least, love Him 
out of gratitude. "I have," says He to every one 



156 The Essence of Perfection. 

of us, ''loved thee from all eternity, and out of love 
have I created thee." ''Yea, I have loved thee with 
an everlasting love" (Jerem. xxxi. 3). With an 
everlasting love! A love as old as God Himself! 
And through love for us He has created so many 
beautiful things, the heavens with all their glories 
by day and by night, the mountains and seas in 
their sublimity, hill and dale, forest and field, fruits 
and flowers, and all the beauties of the vegetable 
kingdom. But all these magnificent gifts could not 
exhaust His love and kindness — He must needs give 
us Himself ! St. Paul says : "He hath loved us, and 
hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a 
sacrifice to God" (Eph. v. 2). The chance to make 
that offering of Himself for us was afforded Him by 
the ruin into which sin had hurled us. It had robbed 
us of divine grace, excluded us from heaven, and 
made us slaves of hell. Almighty God could have 
freed us from these evils in a very different manner. 
But such was His love that only by coming on earth 
Himself, by taking the form of man, by suffering 
and death, could it be satisfied. It w^as that love 
which urged Him to free us from eternal death, 
to restore us to the friendship of God, and to the 
heaven that sin had lost. "He emptied Himself, tak- 
ing the form of a servant, being made in the likeness 
of men, and in habit found as a man" (Phil. ii. 7). 
Infinitel}^ great must have been the love that led a 
God to clothe Himself with our flesh! "And the 
Word was made flesh" (John i. 14). 

Still greater must be our amazement when we 
consider what the Son of God has done and suffered 
for us, miserable worms of the earth. He would 
not only redeem us, but, by magnificent proofs of 
His love, He would strive to win our love in return. 
For this He chose to lead a poor and despised life, to 



The Essence of Perfection. 157 

die a bitter and shameful death. *'He humbled Him- 
self, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death 
of the cross" (Phil. ii. 8). 

Recall the special graces, denied to many others, 
that have been imparted to you by His loving provi- 
dence. To you He gave the grace to be born in the 
bosom of the true Church. He has chosen you for 
His bride, thus withdrawing you from the dangers 
to salvation to which so many others remain exposed. 
And now that you are in the blessed asylum of holy 
Religion, does He forget you, does He neglect you ? 
Ah, no ! How kindly, how generously He provides 
for you ! He is constantly encouraging and strength- 
ening you by His interior lights and inspirations, by 
the sacraments, the counsels and admonitions of 
Superiors, the good and edifying example of your 
fellows-Religious, and by many other means of sal- 
vation. Hesitate no longer to sacrifice yourself com- 
pletely, but say with all your heart : ''Thee alone 
w^ill I love, my God and my all ! Do Thou assist me, 
and in Thy mercy grant that I may love Thee per- 
fectly!'' A good watchword is that of St. Francis 
of Assisi : ''Dens mens et omnia T "My God and my 
all !" 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Zbc %ovc ot a 1Relialou6 tor Scene Cbtiat 

/^|"e read in the Franciscan chronicles that the 
^^^^ saintly Brother Egidius once said to St. 
Bonaventure, General of the Order : "To you, wise 
and learned ones, God has granted many graces with 
which you can serve and glorify Him. But what 
can we, ignorant and unlettered, do to please the 
Lord?'' St. Bonaventure answered: ''Had Our 
Lord given you no other grace than to be able 
to love Him, that would be sufficient. By love 
we can render Him far greater service than by 
all other gifts." Then Brother Egidius askea, 
"'Can an ignorant man love Our Lord Jesus as much 
as a learned one?" The saint answered: ''A poor, 
simple, old woman may love Our Lord far more 
devotedly than a master of theology." Inflamed 
with holy zeal. Brother Egidius ran to that part of 
the garden which lay nearest the city and cried in 
a loud voice : "Come, poor, ignorant, simple one ! 
Love your Lord Jesus Christ, and you may attain 
to a higher degree of sanctity and happiness than 
Brother Bonaventure with all his learning!" Then 
suddenly falling into ecstasy, he did not stir from 
that spot for three hours. 

The Religious above all others must hearken to 
this call of Brother Egidius to love the Lord. God 
desires to be especially loved by those whom He 
has chosen for His spouses and whom He has 
favored with so many graces and privileges. The 
first means to acquire the love of Jesus Christ is to 
desire most fervently that your heart may belong 



The Love of a Religious for Jesus Christ. 159 

to Him alone. Desires are the wings by which the 
saints mount to perfect union with God in holy 
love. St. Teresa left to her daughters several beauti- 
ful instructions on this subject. ''Our thoughts 
ought to be great and magnanimous, for on them 
depends our spiritual advancement.'' Again she 
says : ''Our desires must not fly low. We must place 
all our confidence in God. If we use force with our- 
selves, we shall gradually reach the point to which 
the saints attained." She tells us, from her own 
experience, that she had never seen a timid soul ad- 
vance as far in many years as a magnanimous one 
in a few days, for Almighty God, as she says, is as 
much pleased with our desires as with their ful- 
filment. St. Gregory says that the soul that longs 
for God with her whole heart already possesses Him. 
A w^hole heart means a heart that is emptied of all 
earthly things, of all earthly love. 

The second means to acquire the perfect love of 
God is to renounce all love that has not God for its 
object. God wishes the sole ownership of our heart 
— He can not brook a rival. St. Augustine relates 
that the Roman Senate, after recognizing three thou- 
sand gods, refused adoration to the God of the 
Christians; for, as they said: "He is a proud God, 
who alone wants to be adored, and who sufifers no 
god but Himself.'' Our God has a right to demand 
our whole heart. He is the only true God. He is 
Our Lord, Our Creator, who has loved us from 
eternity, and desires our perfect happiness. To love 
God with our whole heart we must banish from 
our heart every inclination that has not God for its 
object. St. Francis de Sales, so inflamed with the 
love of God, says : 'Tf I knew that in my heart there 
was a single fiber not for God, I would immediately 
pluck it out." The love of God can find no entrance 



i6o The Love of a Religious for Jesus Christ. 

into a heart trammeled by earthly desires. But, on 
the contrary, in a heart perfectly free from worldly 
influences the fire of divine love constantly burns 
more brightly. St. Teresa exclaims : ''Tear your 
heart from all creatures, seek God and you will find 
Him."' Remember, beloved soul, that you espoused 
yourself to Jesus Christ at your holy profession. 
You then said : ''The kingdom of this world and all 
temporal treasures I despise for the love of my 
Lord Jesus Christ, whom I recognize as the most 
lovable and adorable of bridegrooms. I have, there- 
fore, given Him all my love ; in Him I have placed 
all my hope ; in Him I believe, and Him I love above 
all things.'' If creatures try to enter your heart, 
drive them back with the words : "It belongs to 
Jesus. There is no room for you." Divine love 
makes of the cloister a place diametrically opposed 
to the world. In it we hate what the world loves, 
and love what it hates. To love Jesus above all 
things and with our whole heart we must deny our- 
selves ; that is, we must willingly accept all that is 
contrary to self-love, and mortify it in all its de- 
mands. Once when St. Teresa was sick they offered 
her some nourishment, or rather some delicacy, 
which the saint did not wish to accept. To per- 
suade her to eat of it the nurse assured her that it 
was very good and well prepared. The saint re- 
plied : "Just because it is good I will not eat it." 
And so we too must resign what pleases us just be- 
cause it does please us. We must break off all 
earthly attachments and desires, convinced that no 
one on earth is more content than he who despises 
earthly goods and pleasures and longs only for God. 
In this spirit of renunciation be mindful, beloved 
soul, to renew every day the vows of poverty, chas- 
tity, and obedience. These three vows remove the 



The Love of a Religions for Jesus Christ. i6i 

impediments to perfect charity and union with God, 
which arise ( i ) from affection to external things ; 

(2) from carnal pleasures and creature loves; and 

(3) from the love of our own self-will. 

To know God means to love Him. To know our- 
selves means to despise ourselves. Whatever is good 
in us belongs to God, but nothingness, misery, and 
sin belong to ourselves. Charity rests on humility. 
Humility of mind leads to humility of heart, which, 
as Father Buckler says, ''Moves us ever to be 
humble before God, being well content with our 
littleness and nothingness, that He may be our all ; 
and which further moves us to be humble before 
others, when the right occasions come. Then it is, 
when we are humbled, that w^e have to act vipon our 

humilitv of mind, and humble what is of ourself 

*' 

m us, to what is of God in the other. This twofold 
knowledge — the knowledge of God and the knowl- 
edge of ourselves — helps gradually to breed and 
form within us the two blessed habits of humility 
and charity, humility forming the safe foundation 
for charity; humility the groundwork and charity 
the lifelong work.'' 

To love God, then, means to be truly humble, to 
love prayer and mortification, to be faithful to the 
vows and the Rules, to be exact, i. e., very conscien- 
tious in the performance of every duty. If you love 
God truly, prove your love by your actions. Let 
3'^our w^atchword be, ''xA.ll for Jesus !" 

The third means to obtain the perfect love of 
Jesus Christ is frequent meditation on His sacred 
Fassion. St. Magdalene of Pazzi says: "A Religions 
who has consecrated herself entirely to the love of 
her crucified Saviour ought in every action to glance 
at the cross, that the thought of the everlasting love 
which He has borne her mav never be absent from 



i62 The Love of a Religious for Jesus Christ, 

her mind.'' It seems that our divine Saviour willed 
to endure so many different kinds of suffering and 
outrages — chains and blows, scourging and thorns, 
spitting, reviling, and the crucifixion — in order that 
His beloved ones should have various mysteries for 
their meditation. In pondering upon the Passion of 
Our Lord we should not seek spiritual consolation 
and sweetness, but only a more ardent love for Jesus. 
The fruit of such meditations should be the 
resolution to suffer everything for love of Him 
who suffered so many and so bitter things for love 
of us. 

The fourth means to obtain the perfect love of 
God consists in frequent acts of that virtue. As fire 
is fed by fuel, so is love by acts of love. By day 
and by night, express your love for your crucified 
Saviour by fervent aspirations like these : 'T give 
•myself entirely to Thee, my God ! I will all that Thou 
dost will. Do with me what -Thou pleasest. I desire 
nothing but Thee !" "My God, I love Thee !" "My 
love, my All !" Yes, a loving sigh, an elevation of 
the heart, an aspiration with a glance toward heaven, 
on the Blessed Sacramicnt, or on a crucifix, ascends 
as an odor of sweet incense to the throne of God. 
These loving acts are, perhaps, the very best because 
more easily made. They can be more frequently 
renewed, and they are generally pronounced with 
greater fervor. One of your favorite aspirations 
should be : "Heart of Jesus, inflamed with love 
of us, inflame our hearts with love of Thee." Make 
frequent use also of the following antiphon, with 
its versicle and response from the Little Office of 
the Sacred Heart: 

Antiphon. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, full of lov- 
ing kindness for those who love Thee, may our 
flesh and our heart be absorbed in Thee, that Thou 



The Love of a Religious for Jesus Christ. 163 

mayest be the love of our heart and our portion 
forever. 

V. My heart is ready, O God of my heart, to do 
Thy will. 

R, My God, I have willed it, that Thy law be ever 
in the midst of my heart. 

O Religious soul ! love your divine Spouse not 
only in word and in sentiment, but in deed and in 
truth. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Contormlt^ witb tbe Divine TOill — BbanC)onment. 

^^ T. Chrysostom holds that the perfect love of 
J"^ man for God consists in conformity with the 
divine will. The Wise Man says : '*They that 
are faithful in love shall rest in Him" (Wisd. iii. 9). 
Souls that love God truly rest in Him ; they desire all 
that He wills. The sacrifice of self-will is the most 
agreeable offering that can be made to God, since 
nothing is dearer and sweeter than one's own will 
Blessed Henry Suso says : ''That you are inundated 
w^ith spiritual light and consolation does not honor 
God so much as your submission to His divine will." 
The heinousness of sin consists in willing what 
God does not will. Samuel told Saul that it was a 
species of idolatry for a man to resist the will of 
God, because in that case he adores his own instead 
of the divine will. As the wickedness of the creature 
lies in his opposition to his Creator, so his perfec- 
tion consists in conformity with His will. He who 
tries to conform to the will of God is a man accord- 
ing to the Heart of God, as He Himself says : "I 
have found a man according to My own Heart, who 
does all My will." He says the same of a soul who 
abandons herself to His will : ''Thou shalt be called 
My pleasure in her'' (Isaias Ixii. 4). Happy she 
who with the bride in the Canticles can say: "My 
soul melted when my Beloved spoke" (Cant. v. 6). 
Why does she say melted f Because melted things 
no longer retain their former shape. They take the 
form of the vessel into which they have been poured. 
So loving souls no longer preserve their own will, 
but resign themselves to whatever their Beloved 



Conformity with the Divine Will. 165 

wills. All that they do for the good pleasure of 
God is an evidence of their perfect submission to 
His holy will, quite unlike those who oppose their 
own obstinate will to His. An instrument is good 
only when it serves the workman. Of what other 
use is it? If, for example, the brush would resist 
the hand of the artist, of what good would it be to 
him ? Would he not cast it away ? 

When all things go according to their v/ill, men 
resign themselves to the divine will, but in contradic- 
tions they rebel. This is folly. To act in this 
manner is to suffer doubly and without merit, be- 
cause the will of God, w^hether wq like it or not, 
must be accomplished. God takes His delight in 
those who, in the time of trouble, say with David : 
*T was dumb, and I opened not my mouth, because 
Thou hast done it" (Ps. xxxviii. 10). Many things 
appear to us evil, and we call them misfortunes ; but 
if we knew God's- designs in them we should see 
clearly that they are blessings in disguise. Manasses, 
deprived of his kingdom and led into captivity by 
the Assyrians, certainly regarded it as a great mis- 
fortune ; and yet it was for him the greatest advan- 
tage, for he turned to his God and did penance : 
''And after that he was in distress, he prayed to 
the Lord his God, and did penance exceedingly be- 
fore the God of his fathers" (2 ParaHp. xxxiii. 12). 

No one is more solicitous for our wxU-being for 
time and eternity than the great, good God. To 
make us understand this truth. He compares Him- 
self to a shepherd seeking the lost lamb in the desert, 
and again to a mother, w^ho can never forget her 
child : ''Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to 
have pity on the son of her w^omb? and if she 
should forget, yet will not I forget thee" (Isaias 
xlix. 15). Again, He compares Himself to a hen 



1 66 Conformity with the Divine Will. 

which shelters her young under her wings : ''Jerusa- 
lem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and 
stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often 
would I have gathered together thy children as the 
hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and 
thou wouldst not!" (Matt, xxiii. 37.) God en- 
compasses us, as David says, in order to turn away 
from us every danger on the part of our enemies : 
''O Lord, Thou hast crowned us as with a shield 
of Thy good wnll" (Ps. v. 13). Ah ! why do we not 
abandon ourselves entirely to the guidance of so 
good a father? Happy are they who allow them- 
selves to be led by Almighty God as He wills and 
where He wills ! Father Saint- Jure tells us of a 
young man who greatly desired to enter the Society 
of Jesus. But owing to the fact that he had lost an 
eye he was rejected. Who would not look upon 
this as a grievous misfortune for that young man? 
And yet it was the cause of his supreme happiness, 
for he was at last received into the Society on con- 
dition that he would preach the Gospel in India. He 
went to that heathen country, and there died a martyr 
for the Faith. Like the blind man in the Gospel, 
let us allow ourselves to be led by God, being firmly 
convinced that only in this manner can we attain eter- 
nal salvation. Everything comes from God : ''Good 
things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, 
are from God" (Ecclus. xi. 14)-. God permits the 
actions directed against you by your persecutors, 
though He does not will the sin that accompanies 
them.. But of you He expects patience in suffering 
and persecution ; for it is He who sends these trials. 
When Job was robbed of all his herds God did not 
will the sin of theft, but He did will that Job should 
bear his loss patiently. He did so, as we are told by 
his own words in Holy Scripture : "The Lord gave, 



Conformity zvith the Divine Will. 167 

and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name 
of the Lord!*' (Job. i. 21.) St. Augustine, com- 
menting on this passage, says : ''Job did not say, 
'The Lord gave, and the devil hath taken away.' 
No, he said, 'The Lord hath taken away/ '' In like 
manner God did not will the sin of the Jews when 
they crucified the Saviour. And did not Jesus Christ 
say to Peter : "The chalice which my Father hath 
given Me, shall I not drink it?" (John xviii. 11.) 
By these words Christ gives us to understand that 
although the Jews would indeed kill Him, yet it was 
His heavenly Father who had prepared that chalice 
for Him. In every contradiction we should behold 
the hand of God, and submit to His holy will. 

St. Teresa says : "We deceive ourselves greatly if 
we think that union with God consists in ecstasies, 
ravishments, and spiritual consolations. It consists 
alone in thinking, saying, doing that which is in con- 
formity to the will of God. This union is perfect 
when our will is detached from everything, attached 
but to God in such a manner that it breathes but His 
pure will. This is the true and essential union that 
I ardently desire, and continually ask of Our Lord.'' 

St. Francis de Sales never ceased to admire in 
St. John the Baptist his perfect conformity to the 
will of God. "The holy precursor," said he, "dwelt 
twenty-four years in the desert, and God alone knew 
the great love he had for the Saviour from the time 
he was sanctified in his mother's womb, and the 
longing he had to enjoy His presence; nevertheless, 
he remained so devoted to his work, doing the will 
of God, that he quitted it but once to see Him. Hav- 
ing baptized Him, he did not remain among His 
followers, but continued to exercise the ministry con- 
fided to him. O God, what is this, if it be not to 
hold one's spirit detached from all, and attached to 



i68 Conformity with the Divine Will. 

the will of God alone! This example delights me, 
overwhelms me with its grandeur/'"*" 

The wife of St. Francis Borgia, who was very- 
dear to him, being dangerously ill, Our Saviour gave 
the saint the choice of her life or death. He replied, 
"Lord, why leave to me a choice which is in Thy 
power alone ? That which I desire most is to do in 
all things Thy will ; Thou alone knowest what is best 
for me. Do, then, as pleases Thee best, not only 
with my wife, but with my children and myself. 
Fiat vohintas Tua/' 

St. Vincent de'Paul tells us: ''One act of resig- 
nation to the divine will in that which is contrary 
to our inclination is of more value than ten thousand 
words of thanks for that which conforms to our 
taste.'' St. Vincent showed by the sweetness of 
his words and the serenity of his countenance that he 
looked upon all the events of life with equal indiffer- 
ence. He never lost sight of his great maxim, 
"Nothing happens in the world but by the order 
of divine Providence." Into the arms of Providence 
he threw himself and abandoned himself entirely. 
A worthy prelate, who was struck with admiration 
at his constant sweetness, which nothing could 
disturb, said, "Father Vincent is always Father 
Vincent." 

The saint, learning that a suit was about to be 
commenced to deprive several houses of his Congre- 
gation of some land, replied to those who spoke 
of it : "Whatever is pleasing to God will take place ; 
He is Master of all we possess ; may He dispose of 
it as He wills." 

The prayer of St. Gertrude to God must have been 
agreeable to Him. She said with greatest fervor: 
"Lord, I beg Thee have no regard for my will, but 
"^The Spiritual Director. 



Conformity with the Divine Will. 169 

only for Thine. Do with me what Thou knowest 
will tend most to Thy glory and to my good. I 
have no other desire but to be and to do what Thou 
wilt. Non mea, sed Tua voluntas fiat, Jesu aman- 
tissime/' 

As conformity with the divine will is a sure means 
for attaining perfection, we must exercise it at every 
opportunity. We shall say a few words on its prac- 
tice, that is, in what events, and in what manner we 
ought to conform to it. 

We should be submissive to the divine will espe- 
cially in the time of sickness, for sickness, as well 
as health, comes from the hand of God. He sends 
it for our correction and amendment and as a means 
to our sanctification. It may be a source of much 
merit and great blessings. The Wise Man says : 
*'A grievous sickness maketh the soul sober'' 
(Ecclus. xxxi. 2). In sickness as in health we must 
preserve the same conformity to the will of God. 
Does it please the Lord our God to afflict us with 
some bodily ills, we must receive them from His 
hand with equanimity. St. Francis de Sales says : 
"There are many who say to God, T give myself to 
Thee without any reserve,' but there are few who 
practice this abandonment. It consists in re- 
ceiving from the hands of God with a certain indif- 
ference all things according to the order of His 
providence." 

In the life of St. Clare, by Surius, we read that 
for thirty-two years she endured the most grievous 
maladies ; yet in all that time she was never heard 
to utter a single word of complaint. Expressions 
of thanksgiving were always on her lips. In the 
life of St. Lidwina also we have a rare and most 
wonderful example of patient endurance. From it 
the sick may gain courage and consolation. For 



170 Conformity with the Divine Will. 

thirty-eight years, without intermission, this saint 
endured a compHcation of the most severe and ex- 
traordinary pains and afflictions. For thirty of 
these years she could not rise from her couch nor 
stand on her feet ; but in all that time Almighty God 
showered on her the most signal graces. Her sub- 
lime and perfect abandonment to the divine will was 
a source of great merit to herself and of constant 
edification to others. Now some Religious may 
say : ''I would not be troubled about my sickness 
if I were not such' a burden to the community.'' A 
complaint like this is not becoming to a Religious, 
for it reflects upon Superiors as if they were want- 
ing in charity. Superiors, as well as their subjects, 
are striving after perfection. They, too, are obliged 
to receive things as coming from the hand oi God, 
and resign themselves to His will. God wills that 
you should be sick, and that others should undertake 
the care of you. It is your duty to bear the cross of 
sickness with quiet resignation, and it is the duty of 
your Sisters and Superiors to accept their share of 
the cross with patience and cheerful submission. 
Again it may be said : 'T acknowledge the great 
charity that reigns in the convent. What troubles 
me is this, that I can not, on account of my illness, 
be of any use to the community." To this the vener- 
able Father Avila replies : "Do not think of what 
you would do if you wxre well, but of how much 
you will please God if you are contented in your 
sickness. If you seek only the will of God what 
matters it whether you are sick or well ? His will is 
our highest good." Another, perhaps, owing to a 
chronic affliction or on account of long and tedious 
illness, finds it difficult to follow the community in 
many points of the common life. She requires many 
exemptions and special favors; this saddens her. 



Conformity with the Divine Will. 171 

and makes her feel as if she were not a real Re- 
ligious like her fellow-Sisters; she fears also that 
others may be dissatisfied at seeing her so well 
cared for and particularly favored. This fear may 
not be without foundation if the sickness does not 
show itself exteriorly, if it is known only to God 
and the poor sufiferer, while the exemptions and 
favors are observed by all. But you must not 
give up conformity with the will of God. Your 
merit will be double. Be resigned in all your ills, 
great or little, as it is God's will that you should 
endure them ; on the other hand, as to what regards 
the common life, do with exactitude what in you 
lies, and regret that you can not do more. You 
will then gain the merit of patient conformity 
in sickness, and you will share, also, in the 
merits of your companions who fulfil all other 
obligations. 

What has been said of sickness refers, also, to all 
its attendant circumstances. St. Basil gives an ex- 
emplary lesson to the sick. He says : ''We must 
use physicians and remedies, but without placing 
our whole confidence in them. Holy Scripture 
blames this in King Asa, of whom it says : 'In his 
illness he did not seek the Lord, but rather trusted 
in the skill of physicians'" (2 Paralip. xvi. 12). 
We should place all our confidence in God, who 
sometimes restores to health by means of medicines, 
and sometimes does not. The Gospel tells us that 
Our Lord Jesus Christ often cured by His will 
alone, as in the case of that leper who implored his 
cure in these words : "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou 
canst make me clean." Our Lord replied: 'T will. 
Be thou made clean" (Matt. viii. 2, 3). Again, He 
sometimes accompanied His words with action, as 
when He mixed clay with His spittle, anointed the 



172 Conformity with the Divine Will, 

eyes of the blind man, and sent him to wash them in 
the pool of Siloe (John ix. ii). 

Just so does Almighty God act in our own day. 
Some He cures by means of medicines, others by 
His will. Many, despite their efforts and their 
numerous methods of treatment, are left in misery 
that they may learn to place their confidence only in 
God. Do not, then, complain of physicians and 
remedies when they avail you nothing. Accept 
your condition as coming from the good God. 
Endure it with- joy and conformity to His 
blessed will in your regard. Forget yourself. 
Remain in peace, and leave yourself absolutely to 
the disposition of your Superiors and attendants. 
Bear in mind the words of St. Paul : ''We know that 
to them that love God, all things work together unto 
good, to such as, according to His purpose, are 
called to be saints" (i Rom. viii. 28). In his 
preface to the highly commendable work of the 
Rev. J. P. De Caussade, S.J. on Abandonment 
or Absolute Surrender to DiiAne Providence y 
Father Ramiere accentuates three principles which 
form the basis of the virtue of abandonment : 

First Principle: Nothing is done, nothing hap- 
pens, either in the material or in the moral world, 
which God has not foreseen from all eternity and 
which He has not willed or at least permitted. 

Second Principle: God can will nothing, He can 
permit nothing, but in view of the end He proposed 
to Himself in creating the world, namely, in view of 
His glory and the glory of the Man-God, Jesus 
Christ, His only Son. 

Third Principle: As long as man lives upon earth, 
God desires to be glorified through the happiness 
of this privileged creature, and consequently in 
God's designs the interest of man's sanctification 



Conformity with the Divine Will. 173 

and happiness is inseparable from the interest of 
the divine glory. 

If we do not lose sight of these principles, which 
no Christian can question, we shall understand that 
our confidence in the providence of Our Father in 
heaven can not be too great, too absolute, too child- 
like. If nothing but what He permits happens, and 
if He can permit nothing but what is for our happi- 
ness, then we have nothing to fear, except not being 
sufficiently submissive to God. As long as .we keep 
ourselves united with Him and we walk after His 
designs, were all creatures to turn against us they 
could not harm us. He who relies upon God be- 
comes by this very reliance as powerful and as in- 
vincible as God, and created powers can no more 
prevail against him than against God Himself. 

This confidence in the fatherly providence of God 
can not, evidently, dispense us from doing all that 
is in our power to accomplish His designs ; but after 
having done all that depends upon our efiforts we 
will abandon ourselves completely to God for the 
rest. 

This abandonment should extend, in fact, to 
everything — to the past, to the present, to the fu- 
ture ; to the body and all its conditions ; to the soul 
and all its miseries, as well as all its qualities ; to 
blessings ; to afflictions ; to the good will of men^ and 
to their malice ; to the vicissitudes of the material, 
and the revolutions of the moral, world ; to life and 
to death. 

I. Among all the dispositions to which our aban- 
donment can be applied, there are, first, those which 
depend solely upon God, where human liberty has 
no part either in producing or averting them. 
Such are, for example, certain scourges and vicissi- 
tudes of the atmosphere ; certain accidents impossi- 



174 Conformity with the Divine Will. 

ble to foresee, certain natural defects of body or 
soul. 

In regard to facts of this order, whether of the 
past, present, or future, it is evident that our aban- 
donment can not be too absolute. There is nothing 
to do here but to passively and lovingly endure all 
that God sends us ; to blindly accept in advance all 
that it may please Him to send us in the future. 
Resistance would be useless, and only serve to make 
us unhappy ; a loving and frequently renewed accept- 
ance, on the contrary, w^ould make these inevitable 
sufferings very meritorious. 

2. There are other sufferings which come to us 
through the malice of creatures : persecutions, 
calumnies, ill-treatment, neglect, injustice, and of- 
fenses of every kind. What are we to do when we 
find ourselves exposed to vexatious things of this 
sort? 

" 1st. We evidently can not like the offense against 
God with which they are accompanied ; we should, 
on the contrary, deplore and detest it, not because it 
wounds our self-love, but because it is an offense 
against the divine rights, and compromises the sal- 
vation of the offending souls. 

2d. As for that which concerns us, on the con- 
trary, we should regard as a blessing that which is 
in itself an evil ; and to do this we need only recall 
the principles previously laid down : not to look only 
at the creature who is the immediate cause of our 
sufferings, but to raise our eyes higher and behold 
God, who has foreseen and permitted them from 
all eternity, and who in permitting them had only 
our happiness in view. This thought will be suffi- 
cient to dissipate the bitterness and trouble which 
would take possession of our hearts were we to look 
only at the injustice of which we are the victims. 



Conformity with the Divine Will. 175 

3cl. In regard to the effects of this injustice al- 
ready consummated and irreparable, we have only 
to resign ourselves as lovingly as possible, and care- 
fully gather their precious fruits. It is frequently 
not difficult to divine the spiritual fruits God des- 
tined for us in exposing us to temporal evils, z'is.: 
to detach us from creatures, to deliver us from in- 
ordinate affections, from our pride, from our tepid- 
ity — veritable maladies of the soul, of which the 
heavenly Physician wishes to cure us, using the mal- 
ice of our neighbor as a sharp instrument. 

4th. If it is in our pov/er to avert the conse- 
quences of malice and injustice, and if in our true 
interest, and in the interest of the divine glory, we 
deem it necessary to take any measures to this end, 
let us do so without departing from the practice of 
the holy virtue of abandonment. Let us commit the 
success of our efforts to God, and be ready to accept 
failure if God judges it more suitable to His de- 
signs and more profitable to our souls. We are so 
blind that we always have reason to fear being de- 
ceived ; but God can not be deceived, and we may be 
certain, in advance, that what He determines will be 
best. Therefore we can not do better than abandon 
with fullest confidence the result of our efforts to 
Him. 

3. Should this abandonment extend equally to 
our acts of imprudence, to our faults, and all the 
annoyances of every kind in w^hich they may result? 

It is important to distinguish here two things 
which self-love tends to confound. In the fault 
itself we must distinguish what is culpable and what 
is humiliating. Likewise in its consequences we 
must distinguish what is detrimental to the divine 
glory and the confusion inflicted on our self-love. 
Evidently we can not hate too much the fault, prop- 



176 Conformity with the Divine Will. 

erly so called ; nor regret too keenly the injury done 
to the divine glory. But as for our humiliation, and 
the confusion inflicted on our self-love, we should 
rejoice, and acquiesce in it with complete abandon- 
ment. The practice of abandonment well under- 
stood should deliver us from that impatience which 
makes us wish to at once attain the summit of per- 
fection, and which serves to keep us from it by 
turning us from the only path which leads to per- 
fection. This path is humility, and the impatience 
which we are censuring is another form of pride. 
Let us make every effort to correct our faults ; but 
let us be resigned to not seeing them all disappear 
in a day. Let us earnestly, and with the most filial 
confidence, ask God to grant us that decisive grace 
which will completely wrest us from ourselves, to 
make us live only in Him ; but let us leave to Him, 
Vv^ith an equally filial abandonment, the care of de- 
termining the day and hour in which this grace 
shall be given us. 

With still greater reason should we abandon to 
God the determining of the degree of sanctity which 
we shall attain upon earth, the extraordinary graces 
which will accompany this sanctity here below, and 
the glory with which it will be crowned in heaven. 
In as far as it depends upon us, we should leave 
nothing undone to increase this sanctity and this 
glory, in order not to fall short of the degree God 
has marked for us ; but if we must earnestly devote 
ourselves to realizing His designs we must not de- 
sire to have them other than they are. If our love 
for God is what it should be, we will thank Him for 
having granted other souls favors that He has re- 
fused us, and we will praise Him no less for our 
poverty than for our riches. 

4. Regarding life and death, time and eternity, 



Conformity with the Divine Will. 177 

that which perfect abandonment asks is that we ob- 
serve in our desires the order of God's designs. 
God created all things for His glory first; and sec- 
ondly, but inseparably, for our happiness. Let us 
do as He does : let us never separate the interest of 
His glory from that of our happiness, but let us 
always make the second subordinate to the first. 
Let us love God as the object of our beatitude, but 
let us love Him above all for His infinite goodness. 
Let us desire and hope for our eternal happiness ; 
but since this happiness, when we shall enjoy it, 
must result from the love of God for Himself, let us 
begin now to seek it as it must be when we realize 
it, and refer the desire of it, as we will one day refer 
its enjoyment, to the glory of this great God who 
desires to be all in all things. 

Thus, at one and the same time, we can practice 
charity and hope, seek the glory of God and our. 
own happiness, fill the designs of Our Creator, and 
satisfy the deepest and most imperative needs of 
our nature. 

The saints did not do otherwise ; and Father Caus- 
sade, in one of his letters, proves very clearly that 
the formulas of apparent despair that they have 
sometimes used in the transports of their cruel suf- 
ferings contained in reality acts of the most meri- 
torious confidence. Elsewhere he also shows most 
perfectly how ill-founded is this even hypothetic 
separation betw^een God's interests and our true in- 
terests ; and he justly concludes therefrom that per- 
fection can not consist in supposing this separation 
and sacrificing the interest of our eternal happiness 
to that of the divine glory. 

Let us consider what the saints say on submis- 
sion and abandonment to the will of God. St. 
Teresa says : "As God knows what is good and 



178 Conformity with the Divine Will. 

useful for us, He gives to each of us what will tend 
most to His glory, to our own salvation, and to the 
good of our neighbor. We deceive ourselves, then, 
and consult our own interests but little, if we do 
not abandon ourselves entirely to His good 
pleasure/' 

Blessed Henry Suso tells us : ''A soul that is truly 
submissive to the will of God is not attached to any- 
thing created : it knows that all that is not God is 
vanity and nothingness ; accordingly it has no other 
object, no other end, but to die to self, to be re- 
signed always and in all things. The angels find so 
much satisfaction in doing the will of God that if 
He asked one of them to come down upon this earth 
and employ himself in separating good grain from 
the bad, or in pulling out weeds from a field, he 
would instantly leave heaven and apply himself will- 
ingly and with all his heart to that which God re- 
quired of him.'' 

He who spoke thus ardently desired to do the 
will of God. He would prefer, he said, to be the 
last of creatures, if it were the will of God, rather 
than be a seraph, and follow his own will. 

St. Francis de Sales admonishes us in these 
words : ''You have not attained that purity which 
you should have, so long as you are not constantly, 
entirely, and joyously submissive to the will of God 
in all things, even in those the most repugnant. 
How beautiful it is to see one divested of all attach- 
ments, ready to practice every virtue, to be chari- 
table, sweet with every one, equally calm in consola- 
tions or in tribulations, always satisfied if the will 
of God be done. If you give yourself to the exercise 
of holy abandonment you will make much progress. 
It will be with you as with those out at sea with a 



Conformity with the Divine Will, 179 

favorable wind, abandoning themselves to the guid- 
ance of a good pilot." 

The Congregation of St. Vincent de Paul having 
met with a considerable loss, the saint wrote as fol- 
lows to one of his friends : *'Being one of our most 
intimate friends, I must acquaint you with a loss 
with which we have recently met: it is not an evil 
that has befallen us, but a favor which we have re- 
ceived from God, and for which you will help us to 
return thanks to Him. I call the afflictions which 
He sends us favors and benefits, particularly when 
they are well received. It is in His infinite goodness 
that He has ordered this loss, and He gives us grace 
to accept it with perfect and entire resignation — I 
may say with the same joy we would have felt had 
He sent some great prosperity." 

On another occasion St. Vincent wrote regarding 
the serious illness of one of his companions and the 
great loss his death would entail to the congre- 
gation : 

''It appears that Our Lord wishes to take His 
share of our little Society. It is all His : therefore 
He has the best right to do as He pleases with it. 
As for me, my greatest desire is to desire nothing 
but the accomplishment of His divine will." In the 
many infirmities with which the saint was visited, 
particularly during the last year of his life, when he 
felt his end approaching, he was always the same, 
perfectly indifferent to consolations, sufferings, or 
death. He desired above all that the will of God 
be accomplished in him. 

St. John Chrysostom repeated these words so 
frequently that they might be regarded as his motto : 
''Lord, glory belongs to Thee for all," Gloria tibi, 
Domine, propter omnia. 



i8o Conformity with the Divine Will. 

While St. Magdalene of Pazzi was a novice, her 
mistress, knowing her great love for prayer, per- 
mitted her fo retire to pray at different times while 
the others were employed in some manual labor. 
But she did not make use of the privilege. "In per- 
forming the same exercises as the others through 
obedience,'' she said, ''I am sure to do the will of 
God ; in doing anything else, I am rather following 
my own will, no matter how holv the exercise mav 
be." ^ ^ " 

Abandonment to divine Providence should extend 
to the circumstances of our death, as St. Alphonsus 
Liguori says : 'It is necessary that we should be al- 
ways in such dispositions as to be willing to die at 
the time and in the rnanner that God wills.'' 

One day St. Gertrude in ascending a hill fell. 
Meeting nothing to arrest her fall, she soon reached 
the bottom of the hill. Providence miraculously 
preserved her life, and she was not even injured. 
Her companions asked her whether she had not 
been afraid of dying without the last sacraments. 
''No," replied she. "I desire certainly to receive the 
last sacraments before death, but I desire more 
ardently that the will of God be accomplished. This 
is the best disposition in which to be found at the 
hour of death." 

A good, simple, little prayer for a happy death is 
this : "My God, I desire to die the death that Thou 
wiliest I should die ; let me die in Thy love." 

Bossuet writes as follows on perfect abandon- 
ment : 

"When we are truly abandoned to God's will, v/e 
are ready for all that may come to us : we suppose the 
worst that can be supposed, and we cast ourselves 
blindly on the bosom of God. We forget ourselves, 
we lose ourselves : and this entire forgetfulness of 



Conformity zvifh the Divine Will. i8i 

self is the most perfect penance we can perform ; for 
all conversion consists only in truly renouncing and 
forgetting ourselves, to be occupied with God and 
filled with Him. This forgetfulness of self is the 
martyrdom of self-love ; it is its death, and an anni- 
hilation which leaves it without resources; then the 
heart dilates and is enlarged. We are relieved by 
casting from us the dangerous weight of self which 
formerly overwhelmed us. We look upon God as a 
good Father who leads us, as it were, by the 
hand in the present moment; and all our rest is in 
humble and firm confidence in His fatherly good- 
ness. 

"If anything is capable of making a heart free and 
unrestrained, it is perfect abandonment to God and 
His holv will : this abandonment fills the heart with 
a divine peace. If anything can render a mind 
serene, dissipate the keenest anxieties, soften the 
bitterest pains, it is assuredly this perfect simplicity" 
and liberty of a heart wholly abandoned to the 
hands of God. The unction of abandonment gives a 
certain vigor to all the actions, and spreads the joy 
of the Holy Spirit even over the countenance and 
words. I will place all my strength, therefore, in 
this perfect abandonment to God's hands, through 
Jesus Christ, and He will be jny conclusion in all 
things in virtue of the Holy Spirit." 

ACT OF ABANDONMENT. 

By Venerable Father Pignatelli, 

O my God, I know not what shall come to me to- 
day; but I am certain that nothing can happen to 
me which Thou hast not foreseen and ordained from 
all eternity : that is sufficient for me. I adore Thy 
impenetrable and eternal designs, to which I sub- 



i82 Conformity with the Divine Will. 

mit with all my heart; I desire, I accept them all, 
and I unite my sacrifice to that of Jesus Christ, my 
divine Saviour ; I ask in His name, and through His 
infinite merits, patience in my trials, and perfect and 
entire submission to all that comes to me by Thy 
good pleasure. Amen. 

Prayer. 

My God, I abandon myself to Thee, I give Thee 
my will. Let Thy will be done in me, by me, over 
nje, in all things and forever. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ttbe lEicxciec of tbe preeence ot ©oD an SID to tbe 

practice ot ipertect Gontotmiti? wttb 

tbe mvinc Wii\l 

^THTn excellent means to attain conformity with the 
(vA-^ will of God is the exercise of the presence of 
God. Conformity with the divine will includes three 
things, namely, the avoidance of sin, the practice of 
virtue, and union with God. But these three things 
are effected by the exercise of the presence of God ; 
for it keeps the soul free from sin ; it leads her on 
to the virtues ; and finally, by holy love, procures her 
union with God. 

I. As regards the avoidance of sin, there is no 
more powerful means for bridling the passions and 
overcoming temptations than the thought of God's 
holy presence. St. Thomas says : 'Tf at all times 
we were mindful of the presence of God we would 
displease Him very seldom." And St. Jerome re- 
marks that the thought of the presence of God closes 
the door to sin. St. Teresa says that all our faults 
arise from not thinking of God as present to us, but 
imagining Him far away. Long before David recog- 
nized this truth. He says : "God is not before his 
(the sinner's) eyes: his ways are filthy at all times" 
(Ps. ix. 26). The Abbot Diodes remarks that he 
who does not think on the presence of God will 
become either a brute or a devil. The Abbot is right, 
for such a man will soon be tormented either by 
sensual or by diabolical desires, which he will not 
have the strength to resist. The thought of the 
omnipresence of the Almighty God infused into the 



184 The Exercise of the Presence of God. 

souls of the saints strength and courage to overcome 
all such attacks. It was this that made the chaste 
Susanna so courageous against the vile suggestions 
of the lecherous old men. Although threatened with 
death, she answered them boldly: "It is better for 
me to fall into your hands without sin than to sin 
in the sight of the Lord" (Dan. xiii. 22^). The 
thought of the divine presence converted a miserable 
woman who had the effrontery to tempt St. Ephrem 
to sin. In answer to her wicked suggestions the 
saint told her that if she wanted to sin it should 
be in the open market-place. "What!" she ex- 
claimed, "sin in the presence of so many people?" 
The saint replied : "And how could you propose to 
sin in the presence of God, who beholds us every- 
where?" When the poor creature heard this admo- 
nition she shed tears, fell on her knees and implored 
the saint's pardon. Then she begged him to show 
Her how to work out her salvation. The saint, 
touched by her tears and earnest entreaties, placed 
her in a convent, where she led a most edifying 
life, never ceasing to bemoan her past. Something 
similar happened to the holy Abbot Paphnutius. A 
certain notorious sinner, named Thais, tempted him 
to sin, assuring him that they were alone, that none 
but God could see them. The saint addressed her 
in an earnest tone : "What ! You believe that God 
sees you, and yet you are willing to sin !" Struck 
by the saint's tone and words, Thais entered into 
herself, and began to conceive intense hatred for her 
past disorder. Yielding to the impulse of grace, she 
gathered together her fine clothes, her jewels, and 
all the treasures gained by her evil way of living, 
made a fire of them in a public place, and retired into 
a convent. There she lived for three years, fasting 
on bread and water, and constantly repeating this 



The Exercise of the Presence of God. 185 

prayer: "O Thou who hast created me, have mercy 
on me!" At the end of that thne she died a holy 
death. Soon afterward it was revealed to a disciple 
of St. Antony that the happy penitent had won a 
splendid throne of glory among the saints. 

By these examples we see how powerful is the 
thought of the presence of God against sin. Let us 
pray with holy Job : 'Deliver me, O Lord, and set 
me beside Thee, and let any man's hand fight against 
me" (Job xvii. 3). O my God, do Thou Thyself 
henceforth remind m^ of Thy presence ! Remind me 
that Thou seest me, and when my enemies rage 
against me, I shall overcome them all. 

2. The remembrance of the presence of God is 
also a powerful incentive to the practice of the Chris- 
tian virtues. How valiantly the soldiers fight in the 
presence of their king ! The mere thought that their 
prince, who can reward or punish, is watching them 
inspires heroism. And when you yourself are in 
the presence of your vSuperiors how attentive you are 
to your work, with what modesty you behave toward 
your companions, how^ puncttially you observe the 
least prescription of obedience ! Ah ! if you were 
deeply impressed by the thought that everyvv^here and 
at all times the eyes of God are upon you, you would 
certainly act with the purest intention, you would 
fly human respect, and you would seek in all your 
actions only His good pleasure. They who walk in 
the presence of their Creator think only of pleasing 
Him, regardless of the creature. 

3. The exercise of the presence of God certainly 
effects an intimate union of the soul with God, since 
the presence of the beloved always increases love. 
We know this from experience with our friends, 
although intimate communication with them often 
discovers many faults. But how different is the re- 



i86 The Exercise of the Presence of God. 

suit of close intercourse with God ! The longer we 
know Him, and the more constantly we keep our- 
selves in His presence, the more beauty and loveli- 
ness do we discover in Him, and the more powerfully 
are we drawn to Him. To establish intimate union 
with the Supreme Good it is not enough to say our 
morning and evening prayers; for, as St. Chrysos- 
tom remarks, boiling water soon regains a low tem- 
perature when removed from the fire. Just so is it 
with the spiritual heat of the soul. Its fervor must 
be kept alive by frequent remembrance of the pres- 
ence of God and by ejaculations of love. David tells 
us that he was filled with joy and consolation when 
he thought of God: 'T remembered God, and was 
delighted'' (Ps. Ixxvi. 4).. However great may be 
the sadness and dejection of the soul, the loving 
thought of God will surely disperse all clouds. Souls 
that love God taste uninterrupted peace. Like the 
sunflower, which turns always toward the sun, they 
aim at living and acting always in the presence of 
the glorious Sun of justice. They heed the injunc- 
tion of the Lord : ''Walk before Me and be perfect" 
(Gen. xvii. i). This means that they live in perfect 
conformity with the will of God and labor solely for 
the glorv of God. ''He is a true lover," says St. 
Teresa, ''who thinks ever of the beloved." 

<!^f l^ecallitiQ tt)e JBresence of ®^otr ftg l^eans of 
tf)e Sintierstantiins. 

The Exercise of the Presence of God calls into 
play both the understanding and the zvill. 

We must, by the understandings imagine God be- 
fore us. In many different ways we can, by the 
operation of the mind, place ourselves in His divine 
presence. We may in the first place represent our 



The Exercise of the Presence of God. 187 

divine Saviour Jesus Christ as present to us, accom- 
panying us, and observing all our actions. We may 
imagine Him sometimes in this, sometimes in that, 
mystery of His life. St. Teresa greatly favors this 
way of practicing the presence of God. The second 
manner of recalling the presence of God is perhaps 
safer and more profitable to the soul. It consists 
in beholding God with the eyes of faith as present 
everywhere, constantly beside us, observing all that 
we do. What matters it that we do not see Him 
with our corporal eyes ? We can not see the atmos- 
phere, and yet we know for a certainty that it sur- 
rounds us on all sides. Without it we could neither 
live nor breathe. We can not see God with the eyes 
of the body, because He is a pure spirit ; but holy 
faith teaches us that He is constantly present to us. 
''Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see 
him, saith the Lord ? Do not I fill heaven and earth, 
saith the Lord?" (Jer. xxiii. 24.) As a sponge in 
the sea is saturated with water and surrounded by 
it, so, says St. Paul, we live in God, we have all our 
being in God : ''For in Him v^^e live and move and 
are" (Acts xvii. 28). "God," says St. Augustine, 
"observes every action, every word, every thought 
of each one of us, and that with as great attention 
as if He had forgotten all other creatures to look at 
us alone. But as He sees all that we do, say, and 
think. He takes note of all, in order, at the Day of 
Judgment, to call us to account, then to reward or 
punish us." To recall the presence of God accord- 
ing to this second way, it is sufficient to make an 
act of faith with one's whole heart, and to exclaim : 
"O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art here pres- 
ent !" This may be followed by acts of love, submis- 
sion to His holy will, some good resolution, etc. 
The third means of recalling the presence of God 



i88 The Exercise of the Presence of God. 

is to behold Him in all creatures. They have their 
being from Him, and they are destined for our ser- 
vice; therefore we should accustom ourselves to 
look at God in them. His power and goodness shine 
forth from them. As we gaze upon them we should 
make acts of love, gratitude, and thanksgiving to 
Him, remembering that, from all eternity. He 
thought of calling so many beings into existence for 
us to win our love. ''Learn,'' says St. Augustine, 
''to love your Creator in the creature. Do not be- 
come attached to those objects that God has created, 
that you may not lose Him who created them." 
When St. Teresa looked at the meadows, the woods, 
the sea, the mountains, the brooks, the flowers, or 
other beauties of creation, she thought she heard 
them all reproaching her with her ingratitude to God. 
St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, also, when holding a 
lovely fl.ower or some fruit in her hand, used to 
be inflamed with the love of God, and would cry. 
out: "From all eternity God has thought of creating 
this flower, this apple, for love of me, to give me a 
proof of His love.'' 

The fourth means of never losing sight of God 
is to behold Him in ourselves. God is present in us 
in a way that far transcends His presence in the rest 
of creation. The Lord dwells in us as in His temple, 
in His place of abode. "Know you not that 
you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit 
of God dwelleth in you?" (i Cor. iii. i6.) 
Therefore, our divine Saviour declared that 
with the Father and the Holy Ghost He would 
enter into the soul that loves Him, not for a 
passing visit, but to take up His dwelling in her: 
"If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My 
Father will love him, and we will come to him, and 
will make our abode with him" (John xiv. 23). 



The Exercise of the Presence of God. 189 

God dwells in a special manner in our soul, and 
abides in us with singular joy, as He declares to us 
by the Apostle: ''I will dwell in them, and walk 
among them, and I will be their God" (2 Cor. vi. 
16). There He wills to be loved and adored by us. 
We ought, therefore, to strive to excite faith in His 
holy presence, both to humble ourselves before His 
divine majesty, and to make acts of confidence, self- 
oblation, and love. 

St. Teresa teaches us that the soul should be con- 
sidered as an interior world, in which the good God 
deigns to dwell as in another heaven. Speaking of 
the presence of God in the heart, the saint says : 'T 
think that they who can inclose themselves in the 
little heaven of their own soul, where is found the Al- 
mighty One who created it, have taken an admirable 
way to perfection, because in a short time they will 
run a long course." The saints by practicing the 
presence of God in this way acquired great merit. 
It was to it the Royal Psalmist referred when he 
said : 'T set the Lord always in my sight, for He is 
at my right hand that I be not moved" (Ps. xv. 8). 
Blessed Henry Suso was so attentive to this prac- 
tice that he performed all his actions in the presence 
of God, arriving at so great a degree of union that 
tender aspirations of love were alw^ays on his lips. 
St. Gertrude, also, performed this exercise so per- 
fectly that Our Saviour said of her to St. Mech- 
tildis : ''This soul so dear to me walks constantly in 
My presence. She is always careful to do My will, 
and to perform all her actions for My greater 
glory." The same may be said of St. Teresa. No 
matter with what she might be occupied she never 
lost sight of her beloved Lord. 

Keep yourself constantly in the presence of God. 
The Lord said to the patriarch Abraham : ''Walk 



igo The Exercise of the Presence of God. 

before Me, and be perfect" (Gen. xvii. i). That 
means, if you walk always in My presence, you will 
be perfect. Tobias gave his son the same instruc- 
tion : '*A11 the days of thy life have God in thy 
mind" (Tob. iv. 6). The Prophet Micheas admon- 
ishes us : ''I will show thee, O man, what is good, 
and what the Lord requireth of thee ... to walk 
carefully with thy God" (Mich. vi. 8). 

©f Hecalliufl tSe l^xtntntz of 6;^otr ibg J^eans of 
tje jmm. 

Having explained the exercise of the understand- 
ing, we shall now discuss that of the will in recall- 
ing the presence of God. Let us remark in the first 
place that the happiness of the blessed consists in 
this, that they uninterruptedly fix their understand- 
ing on God, and always remain before Him. But 
oh earth it is humanly impossible to preserve with- 
out intermission the remembrance of God's pres- 
ence ; we should, however, make every effort in our 
power to enjoy the sweetness of God's presence, 
tranquilly and peacefully, without anxiety or im- 
moderate effort of the understanding. We may, in 
a threefold manner, maintain the will attentive to 
the divine presence. 

The first way is to raise the heart to God frequently 
by fervent little aspirations or sighs of love. This 
may be done everywhere and at all times, at work, 
at table, or at recreation. These aspirations may con- 
sist in acts of love, desire, longing for God, aban- 
donment, self-oblation, thanksgiving, humility, con- 
trition, hope, and confidence. Though fully occu- 
pied, nothing can prevent your raising your heart 
from time to time, and saying to God : ''O my God, 
I desire Thee alone !" 'T wish to belong en- 



The Exercise of the Presence of God. 191 

tirely to Thee !'' 'T give myself entirely to Thee !" ''I 
renounce all for Thy love!" 'T thank Thee for 
all the graces which Thou hast bestowed on 
me!" "Give me Thy holy love!" "O that all 
hearts would love Thee!" ''My God and mv all!" 
"Blessed be God!" "Blessed be His holy name!" 
''Ad Majorem Dei Gloriamf 'Tn Thee, my God, 
I place all my confidence!" "Thy will be done for- 
ever !" The ancient Fathers set great value on 
these short aspirations, since they are better adapted 
to keeping the soul in the presence of God than long 
prayers. St. Chrysostom says that he who fre- 
quently uses them closes the door to the devil so 
that he can not torment him with bad thoughts. 
At stated times, we should awaken our faith in the 
presence of God, whose immensity fills all space. 
In the morning, when we awake, our first words 
should be, "My God, I adore thee; I believe that 
Thou art everywhere ! Wherever I may go to-day, 
Thou wilt be near me. Protect me, I beseech Thee, 
and permit me not to offend in Thy sight." Again, 
recall the divine presence at the beginning of all 
your prayers, whether mental or vocal. This act of 
faith will prevent distractions. In every tempta- 
tion to impatience, or to any other fault, we must 
recur instantly to the thought of God present 
and ask His help. This will bring us strength 
and courage, for there is no more urgent incen- 
tive to victory at such moments than the thought 
that God sees us. David made use of this 
means to battle against temptation : "My eyes 
are ever toward the Lord : for He shall pluck my feet 
out of the snare" (Ps. xxiv. 15). This thought will 
nerve us, also, to the performance of any difficult act 
of virtue that may come in our way, as it did the 
heroic Judith. Having unsheathed the sword, and 



192 The Exercise of the Presence of God. 

grasped the hair of the sleeping Holofernes, before 
giving the death-blow, she raised her eyes to God, 
saying: ''Strengthen me, O Lord God, at this 
hour!'' (Jud. xiii. 9.) 

The second way to preserve the presence of God 
by acts of the will consists in renewing the good 
intention during distracting occupations, aiming at 
doing everything purely to please God. St. John 
Climacus says that, visiting a certain convent, he 
met in the cloister one of the monks who had a great 
deal of work to do. He was the cook, and, exclu- 
sive of guests, some of whom were always present, 
he had to prepare the meals for two hundred and 
thirty Religious. In the fatigue and hurry conse- 
quent on his duty, this good monk maintained re- 
markable interior recollection ; he had, besides, re- 
ceived the gift of tears. Astonished at the sight, 
the saint asked him how he managed to fulfil so well 
his onerous charge. The Brother was at first un- 
willing to speak of himself. But yielding, at last, 
to St. John's importunities, he answered : 'T never 
think that I am serving men, but God, and I esteem 
myself unworthy of rest and quiet. The sight of 
the material fire moves me to tears, since it suggests 
the dreadful torments of the eternal flames of hell, 
the purity of God, and the heinousness of sin." So, 
too, must you serve God alone in everything. At 
the beginning of every action, when you take any 
work in hand, say : ''Lord, I desire only to do Thy 
holy will." From time to time during the progress 
of the work, be mindful to exclaim : "My God, all 
for Thy glory!" or, "For Thee, my God, through 
Christ our Lord !" This is a very easy way of keep- 
ing yourself in the presence of God without 
fatiguing the mind, for even the desire to please 
God is a loving remembrance of His presence. A 



The Exercise of the Presence of God. 193 

third way to recall the divine presence is to retire to 
the choir, or to one's cell, or to some quiet place, 
whenever during the day we perceive that distract- 
ing affairs have occupied the mind to the exclusion 
of the thought of God. When a person feels weak 
from fatigue or fasting, he is careful to take some 
refreshment in order to regain strength for his la- 
bor. How much more should a Religious refresh 
his soul and recruit his strength by a little recollec- 
tion in God when he finds that he has grown cold 
and languid from too much attention to outside af- 
fairs ! Father Avila used to say that a Religious who 
does not love and practice prayer is like a fish out 
of water, out of its natural element. After spend- 
ing a long time in business or other distractions, 
you must retire as soon as possible into solitude, 
there to take breath, as it were, and by loving aspira- 
tions again to recollect yourself in God. The bless- 
edness of heaven consists in the love and contem- 
plation of God ; hence we conclude that the happi- 
ness of a Christian on earth must be found in lov- 
ing and contemplating God, not face to face, but by 
holy faith while w^alking in His presence. In this 
way is begun, even here in this valley of tears, the 
life of the blessed in heaven. 

Truly the exercise of the presence of God by 
means of the understanding and the will is an excel- 
lent method of attaining conformity with the divine 
will. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Zbc ipreaence ot ©oD ConglDeteD in tbe 
IbtDDen %itc. 

IF there is one exercise which conduces more effi- 
caciously than another to our sanctification, it 
is assuredly that of the presence of God. If one 
means be more conducive than another to attain that 
holy exercise, it would seem to be a true and solid 
devotion to the Heart of Jesus. His most holy soul, 
being united to the Word, never lost the view of 
the Beatific Vision, although the beatitude and the 
joy of that Vision were b}^ a miracle withheld from 
overflowing into the lower functions of His soul, in 
order that He might be able to suffer in His 
humanity. 

The nearest resemblance to Our Lord which some 
of the saints have attained in this respect may be 
found in such transient glimpses of the divine 
beauty as we find revealed in their lives. With those 
extraordinary ways by which God sometimes vouch- 
safes to visit a few favored souls we have nothing 
to do at present. When we speak, therefore, in this 
meditation, of the habitual presence of God, we re- 
fer but to that union of the soul with Him which 
was ordinary in the saints, and which may be at- 
tained, in more or less degree, by faithful corre- 
spondence with grace. 

Our faculty in maintaining the divine presence 
will be measured by the extent of our knowledge of 
God, since in proportion to our knowledge of Him will 
be our love, and it is love that keeps us in recollec- 



The Presence of God. 195 

tion of His presence, and that impels us to think of 
Him and of all that relates to Him. This the Heart 
of Jesus teaches us. His soul saw God. It knew 
Him with a knowledge that no other soul but His 
could have supported. His love equalled His 
knowledge, and it was in the mysterious light of 
such knowledge and such love that He walked on 
earth — never alone, even in the midst of the most 
cruel abandonment on the part of creatures — and 
He was never forsaken, even when given up to the 
pangs of supreme agony and dereliction. 

That which proved the consolation of the human 
Heart of Jesus, and after Him of all His saints, may 
be the same in the case of each one of us. Let us 
apply ourselves to know God's beauty and to hear 
His voice, and our hearts will quickly learn to turn 
toward Him, to seek His face, and delight in His 
presence. The consciousness of that presence will 
then become an abiding source of tranquil devotion 
and of peace of heart, if not of sensible joy. It will 
greet us, at our first awakening, with encourage- 
ment to commence another day of trial ; it will fol- 
low us amid our occupations, console us in our sor- 
rows, support us in our temptations, until we shall 
sink to rest, when the day is over, in the bosom of 
that Father whom we have felt so near to us, and 
whose presence will be our last thought, lulling us 
to sleep in the calm consciousness of His protection. 

As the appreciation of the excellence of this holy 
exercise increases, the soul finds more facility and 
more charm in occupying itself wath God, and be- 
comes, by degrees, more familiar with the thoughts 
of Him. It \N\\\ love to recall the Gospel narratives 
of the life of our blessed Lord. It will in time learn 
to feel at home, as it were, among them, and thus it 
will be enabled to make for itself a solitude, a hid- 



196 The Presence of God. 

den life apart from the material life which externally 
surrounds it. This habit the Sacred Scripture calls 
''walking with God," for by it we make Him our 
companion here below. It is of this habitual dwell- 
ing in the divine presence that Jesus affords us so 
perfect a model in the holy house of Nazareth. 

Let us now consider the fruits of constant atten- 
tion to the divine presence, which are first produced 
in the heart, and from thence reflected throughout 
the whole life. 

The soul of Jesus looked ever upon the Father's 
face, and as He looked the flames of love rose ever 
higher within His Sacred Heart. This is the testi- 
mony which He gives of Himself : "He that sent Me 
is with Me, and He hath not left Me alone ; for I do 
always the things that please Him.'' 

If a servant, from the motive of fear, performs 
with care and attention those things which please 
his master when he is conscious of that master's 
presence, how much more will the faithful souls 
do this from a motive of love in the presence of Our 
Father in heaven ! Such will be the first result of 
this holy exercise. The more habitually it is prac- 
ticed, the more constant also will be the practice of 
virtue, since the soul's first desire will be to "do al- 
ways the things that please" the divine object of its 
love, of whose presence it is so conscious. 

It must be remarked, however, that the actions 
which flow from this holy recollection in God have 
in them nothing forced, nothing constrained. 
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 
The heart and mind are really where their treasure 
is, that is, in God and in those things which refer 
to His honor and glory; and this is true recollec- 
tion, widely dift'erent from that studied and simply 
external modesty which is often exaggerated, which 



The Presence of God. 197 

is maintained with effort, and which is perhaps 
sometimes assumed through spiritual vanity. When 
the interior eye has been really attracted by the di- 
vine beauty, exterior objects lose their charm, and 
are held in regard only so far as duty and charity 
demand. When the inward ear habitually listens 
to the divine whisper, silence is then a joy and no 
longer a constraint. Habitual reverence will mani- 
fest itself in the whole exterior — a gentle, spon- 
taneous, and unconscious reverence flowing from 
the union of the soul with God, and from the tran- 
quil happiness which it experiences in the presence 
of its treasure. 

Let us, then, beg a lively faith in the divine pres- 
ence, and the grace to acquire the sanctifying habit 
of walking in it continually, so that with truth we 
may say to God, ''I am always with Thee." Then 
will virtues flourish in our souls beneath that genial 
influence, like flowers beneath the sun. Thus shall 
we grow in likeness to Jesus and make advance in 
our union with His Sacred Heart.* 

*From The Heart of Jesus of Nazareth. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Ibumtltt^ anD tte B^vanta^es. 

'XJ'n important and indispensable virtue in the 
<v^--"^ religions life is humility. It is deemed by 
the saints the foundation and the safeguard of all 
the other virtues. Although holy humility may not 
be called the most distinguished among the virtues, 
yet, as St. Thomas says, it takes the first place, 
inasmuch as it is the foundation of the others. 
St. Augustine says that humility must accompany 
all our actions; must be with us everywhere ; for as 
soon as we glory in our good works they are of no 
further value to our advancement in virtue. 

Before the advent of Jesus Christ upon earth the 
beautiful virtue of humility was little known and 
little loved. It was even despised, because pride, 
the first cause of man's fall, dominated all. The 
Son of God, therefore, came dow^n from heaven to 
teach it, not only by word, but also by His example. 
St. Basil, contemplating the life of the divine 
Saviour, shows that every moment of it, from His 
birth to His death, teaches us this particular virtue. 
He willed to be born in a stable, of a poor mother, to 
be wrapped in swaddling bands, to be laid in a 
manger. Like a sinner. He submitted to circum- 
cision ; like one unable to defend Himself, He fled 
into Egypt ; He willed to be baptized among sinners 
and publicans as one of them. Later on, when His 
followers sought to honor Him by proclaiming Him 
king. He hid Himself. When He knew that scorn 
and insult would be heaped upon Him, He appeared 
in public. The multitude extoi His power, the 



Humility and its Advantages. 199 

demons themselves publish His praise by the mouth 
of the possessed — He commands them to be silent. 
They load Him with dishonor and ignominy — He 
utters not a word. And as if to commend humility 
to us, as if by a last testament, He washes the feet 
of His disciples. All these examples of humility He 
crowned by His ignominious death on the cross. Let 
us hear His words to us: "I have given you an 
example, that as I have done to you, so you do also" 
(John xiii. 15). By these words He appears to say: 
''My children, I have willingly borne humiliation and 
insult that you may learn of Me. Do not despise My 
example." St. Augustine, speaking of the humility 
of Jesus, says : "If His humility does not free us 
from pride, I know of no other remedy." Writing 
to Dioscorus, he says : ''Would you know, my friend, 
which is the virtue that makes vis true disciples of 
Jesus Christ, and unites us intimately with God? 
Most emphatically I say it is humility. And as 
often as you ask me I shall tell you the same." 

''Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord" 
(Prov. xvi. 5), for the proud man is blind; he is, 
moreover, a thief and a liar, since he arrogates to 
himself what belongs to God. St. Paul says : ''What 
hast thou that thou hast not received?" (i Cor. iv. 
7.) Could a horse, if it had the gift of reason, boast 
of its splendid trappings, knowing that, at a sign 
from its master, they could be stripped from him? 
The proud man is blind, as was said to the bishop 
in the Apocalypse : "Thou sayest : I am rich, and 
made wealthy, and have need of nothing ; and know- 
est not that thou art wretched and miserable and 
poor and blind and naked" (Apoc. iii. 17). What 
have we of ourselves but nothingness and sin? If 
we closely examine ourselves we shall find how 
faulty and imperfect is the little good that we may 



200 Humility and its Advantages. 

do. All the gifts that man possesses, whether of 
nature, as health, understanding, beauty, skill ; or 
of grace, as good desires, etc., come from God, the 
Giver of all. This led St. Paul to say : "By the 
grace of God I am what I am'' (i Cor. xv. lo). It 
is certain, as the same Apostle declares, that we 
can not conceive even a good thought of ourselves : 
''We are not sufficient to think anything of ourselves, 
as of ourselves" (2 Cor. iii. 5). 

How poor is the proud soul! As long as pride 
reigns in the heart the Spirit of God can not enter ; 
the evil one can do what he pleases therein. To 
free His servants from pride God sometimes per- 
mits them to be assailed by the most shameful temp- 
tations, and seems not to hear their prayer for de- 
liverance. St. Paul himself is an instance of the 
point in question. We find him writing to the Corin- 
thians : ''There was given me a sting of my flesh, an 
angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which thing thrice 
I besought the Lord, that it might depart from me. 
And He said to me : My grace is sufficient for thee" 
(2 Cor. xii. 7). ''The Lord," says St. Jerome, 
"would not deliver St. Paul from the sting of that 
temptation, in order that he might remain humble." 
Yes, God even permits a man to fall into sin against 
purity, that he may keep him humble in his own eyes. 
This happened to King David, who acknowledges 
that he fell because he had not been humble : "Be- 
fore I was humbled, I offended" (Ps. cxviii. 67). 

St. Augustine says : "If you humble yourself, God 
stoops to unite Himself to you ; if you are proud, 
He turns away from you." In the same strain the 
Royal Prophet exclaims : "The Lord looketh on the 
low, and the high He knoweth afar off" (Ps. 
cxxxvii. 6). The Lord bends loving eyes upon the 
humble, but sees the proud, as it were, only from a 



Humility and its Advantages. 201 

distance. As we look at some one far off, not recog- 
nizing him, so God seems to say to the proud : ''I do 
not know you." The proud fare badly with God. 
The proud ang'els are scarcely a moment in heaven, 
and behold the Almighty Creator thrusting them 
into hell then and there prepared for them. God's 
word can not deceive : ''Whosoever shall exalt him- 
self shall be humbled" (Matt, xxiii. 12). ''God re- 
sisteth the proud, and giveth His grace to the hum- 
ble" (James iv. 6). He has promised to hear every 
one that prays to Him : "Every one that asketh, re- 
ceiveth" (Luke xi. 10). But the proud are excluded 
from this gracious promise. St. James assures us 
that He resists the proud, resists their petitions. To 
the humble, on the contrary. He is lavish. He opens 
His hands, pours out His grace on them, gives them 
whatever they desire. "Humble thyself to God, and 
wait for His hands" (Ecclus. xiii. 9), says the Holy 
Spirit. These words made St. Augustine cry out : 
"Lord, give me the treasure of humility !" This vir- 
tue is, indeed, a treasure, since it attracts the grace 
of God upon the aoul. The heart filled with 
thoughts of self can not receive divine gifts. It 
must first be emptied by the knowledge of its own 
nothingness. David says : "Thou sendest forth 
springs in the vales ; between the midst of the hills 
the waters shall pass" (Ps. ciii. 10). God pours 
out the waters of His grace on the valleys, that is, 
on humble souls ; but the mountains, the proud. He 
overlooks. Hear the lowly Virgin Mother of God 
extolling the wonders of His goodness to her : "He 
hath regarded the humility of His handmaid. . . . 
He that is mighty hath done great things to me" 
(Luke i. 48). He hath regarded my lowliness, that 
is, the knowledge of my own nothingness, says the 
sweet Mother. St. Teresa tells us of herself that 



202 Humility and its Advantages. 

she received the greatest graces when she humbled 
herself before God in prayer. ''The prayer of him 
that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds, and he 
will not depart till the Most High behold'' (Ecclus. 
XXXV. 21 ). Judith, holy and humble, clothed in a 
hair-shirt, her head strewn with ashes, prayed pros- 
trate on the floor of her chamber : ''The prayer of 
the humble and the meek hath always pleased thee" 
(Jud. ix. i6). And again the Royal Prophet says: 
"He hath regard to the prayer of the humble, and 
He hath not despised their petition'' (Ps. ci. i8). 
The humble shall receive from God all that they 
desire. They must not fear being sent away empty- 
handed and unconsoled. While St. Francis Borgia 
was still in the world, a very pious man told him 
that if he wished to advance in the way of perfec- 
tion he should let no day pass without reflecting on 
something that would fill him with holy shame and 
contempt of self. St. Francis followed this advice 
most faithfully and all that he heard or read 
or saw he turned to his own confusion. Nor was 
he satisfied with this. Every morning on rising, he 
knelt down and kissed the floor three times, remind- 
ing himself that he was only dust and that to dust 
he would return. The example of holiness and hu- 
mility that he has left us testifies to the fruit he 
derived from this practice. Let us follow the same 
counsel. Let us allow no day to pass without re- 
flecting upon what can lead to contempt of self. 
Let us not desist from this practice until the soul 
is deeply penetrated with the knowledge of its own 
poverty and weakness, and filled before God with 
holy shame and confusion. 

St. Gregory used to say : "As pride is a mark of 
perdition, so is humility an evident sign of predes- 
tination." In a word, if we do not obey the teach- 



Humility and its Advantages. 203 

ing of Our Lord, if we do not become as little chil- 
dren in simplicity and humility, we shall not be 
numbered among the blessed. ''Unless you become 
as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of 
heaven'' (Matt, xviii. 3). 

To the poor, the despised, the persecuted, heaven 
is promised. ''Blessed are ye when they shall revile 
you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil 
against you . . . your reward is very great in 
heaven" (Matt. v. 11). Observe, it is not only in 
the life to come that the humble are declared blessed, 
but also in the present one. "Learn of Me," says 
our divine Saviour, "because I am meek and humble 
of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls" (Matt, 
xi. 29). Thomas a Kempis says: "Continual peace 
is with the humble, but vexation and unrest in the 
heart of the proud." The peace of the humble is 
best appreciated by a comparison of their state with 
the restlessness and discontent of the proud. Holy 
Scripture abounds in passages proving that sinners 
have no peace. "There is no peace to the wicked, 
saith the Lord" (Is. xlviii. 22). "Saying: Peace, 
peace, and there was no peace" (Jer. vi. 14). "De- 
struction and unhappiness are in their ways ; and 
the way of peace they have not known" (Ps. xiii. 3). 
Their conscience is never free from trouble and, if 
they have a taste of peace, it is not unmixed with 
bitterness. "Behold in peace is my bitterness most 
bitter" (Is. xxxviii. 17). This refers to sinners in 
general, but especially to the proud. They are al- 
ways uneasy, and St. Augustine explains the reason. 
"Pride," says he, "is always accompanied by envy. 
It is by reason of these two evils, namely, pride and 
envy, that the devil is a devil." Hence, we may con- 
clude what efifect these vices produce in man, since 
^hey wrought such woe for the most noble of the 



204 Humility and its Advantages. 

angelic spirits. A man domineered by those in- 
separable companions, pride and envy, vainly seek- 
ing to be honored by all, and having the morti- 
fication of seeing others more honored than he, must 
of necessity bear in his breast a heart filled with gall 
and bitterness. He lives in a state of continual agi- 
tation and unrest. The proud m.an is chagrined, de- 
pressed, utterly miserable when he sees himself 
despised, and another exalted. 

Holy Scripture gives an excellent picture of the 
nature and efi'ects of pride in the person of Aman. 
He was a favorite of King Assuerus, who bestowed 
great possessions on him, and raised him above all 
the nobles of his kingdom. He was honored by 
all, and there seemed nothing left for him to desire. 
But his happiness was not perfect as long as Mardo- 
chai did not rise up to do him honor, did not greet 
him as he passed. This deprived him of peace, as 
he owned to his wife and friends. After he had re- 
counted to them his fortunate position, his high of- 
fice, and all the favors showered upon him by the 
king, he said : ''And whereas I have all these things, 
I think I have nothing so long as I see Mardochai, 
the Jew, sitting before the king's gate" (Esther v. 
13). And so it is with a proud Religious. She can 
not bear to be less esteemed than her neighbor, or to 
have this or that office given to another while she is 
passed by. Such trifles frequently cause more grief 
and uneasiness to Religious than more serious in- 
juries do to worldlings. That they have even lost 
their vocation from such a cause is not unheard 
of. Imagining that they could remain no longer 
where so little consideration was shown them, 
and prating about self-respect demanding its due, 
more than one has rashly imperilled her eternal sal- 
vation by returning to the world. How justly did 



Humility and its Advantages. 205 

St. Francis Xavier exclaim : "O honor and esteem 
of the world, you have given rise to how much evil ! 
To how much evil you will continue to give rfse !'' 
The humble man is always satisfied. What honor 
is conferred upon him he considers far above his 
desert. Is he slighted or injured in any way, he 
thinks that his sins deserve far worse, and he says 
with Job : 'T have sinned, and indeed I have of- 
fended, and I have not received what I have de- 
served" (Job xxxiii. 27). St. Francis Borgia, while 
on a journey, happened to meet one of his former 
noble friends. The latter seeing him destitute of 
the comforts he had once possessed in abundance, 
pitied him and begged him to take a little more care 
of himself. The saint responded with a smile : ''Do 
not be anxious about me. I am not so badly ofif as 
you think. I have a courier who goes before me, 
and makes everything ready for me." The man 
asked: ''And who is that courier?" "That courier," 
answered the saint, "is self-knowledge and the 
thought of the punishment of hell, which my sins 
have deserved. With this knowledge, no matter 
how badly lodged I may be at the inn on my w^ay, I 
alw^ays find my surroundings better than I deserve." 
Let us pray for humility to that model of humility, 
St. Francis Borgia. Let us bear in mind that the 
perfection of the ancient Fathers consisted, as we 
are told, in loving God, despising self, and judging 
none. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
Ibumlltt^ ot tbe innDeratanMng. 

*TTrFTER studying the advantages of humility, we 
(yJ<^ shall now treat of its exercise, and the means 
of attaining this holy and necessary virtue. 'There 
are two kinds of humility," says St. Bernard, "that 
of the mind or understanding, by which, reflecting 
on his own misery and baseness, a man comes to 
despise himself, and esteem himself worthy of be- 
ing despised ; and that of the will, by virtue of which 
he desires to be despised and humbled by every 
one." Without humility of the understanding, that 
of the will can not be acquired. 

. Humility of the understanding consists in hav- 
ing a poor opinion of self, in esteeming one's self as 
wretched and as sinful as one really is. A true self- 
knowledge begets humility. St. Teresa says that 
humility is truth ; consequently, the Lord loves the 
humble so much because they love the truth. It is, 
indeed, true that we are nothing. Of ourselves we 
possess nothing but sin, hence we are more despi- 
cable than nothingness. All the good that we have, 
or effect, comes from God and belongs to God. The 
humble man keeps this truth ever before his eyes, 
and therefore does not praise or glorify himself. 
He is convinced that he deserves contempt ; he can 
not endure that others should attribute to him merit 
that he has not, and rejoices when he is despised and 
treated as he deserves. God is well pleased with the 
humble. The more a man despises himself, the 
more exalted he wnll be in the sight of God, says St. 
Gregory. St. Magdalene of Pazzi used to teach her 



Humility of the Understanding. 207 

Sisters that there are two foundations of perfection, 
love of God and contempt of self. She added, 
moreover, that they who have been more humble on 
earth will see God more clearly in heaven. St. 
Augustine says : ''Two cities have been formed by 
two loves : the earthly by the love of self, even to 
the contempt of God ; the heavenly by the love of 
God, even to the contempt of self." 

We should constantly pray with St. Augustine : 
''Lord, grant that I may know Thee and know my- 
self ; that I may love Thee and despise myself !" 
Thou art the Supreme Good, and I am poverty it- 
self. The Wise Man says: 'Tie [God] is honored 
by the humble" (Ecclus. iii. 21), because only the 
humble recognize Him as the one Supreme Good. 
If you would honor God, you must keep your misery 
ever before your eyes, and be ready to accept from 
the hand of God whatever He ordains. 

The first practice of humility should be never to 
pride one's self on one's good works. Consider the 
heroic deeds of the saints and their profound humil- 
ity ! A frequent reading of their lives will disabuse 
us of egotism. There, at least, pride suffers, 
on beholding what great things the saints did 
for God, while we have done so little. How can we 
glory when we remember that if there is any good 
in us, any virtue, it is a gift of God ? ''Who would 
not smile," says St. Bernard, "if the clouds gloried 
in pouring down their rain?" And so should we 
deserve to be laughed at if we gloried in the little 
good that we do. 

St. Augustine says : '*If a man enumerates his ser- 
vices to Thee, O Lord, what is it that he numbers 
but Thine own gifts?" When St. Teresa performed 
a good work, or saw one performed by another, she 
began at once to praise God for it, knowing that all 



2o8 Humility of the Understanding. 

good comes from Him alone. The saint, moreover, 
makes the judicious remark that humility in no wise 
prevents us from recognizing the special graces 
which God, perhaps, more lavishly bestows on us 
than on others. This is not pride, she says. Such 
knowledge helps to humility and gratitude, since it 
makes us see that, although less deserving, we are 
more highly favored. ''A soul,'' continues the saint, 
''who does not know that she has received great 
graces from God will never resolve to do great 
things for God. We must carefully distinguish be- 
tween what comes from God and what comes from 
self." St. Paul shrinks not from saying that he la- 
bored more for Jesus Christ than all the other 
apostles : 'T have labored more abundantly than all 
they'' (i Cor. xv. lo). But he immediately adds 
that all that he has done is the work of divine grace 
assisting him, ''Yet not I, but the grace of God with 
me" {ibid.). 

We read in Father Huguet's Month of the Sacred 
Heart that St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society 
of Jesus, alvv^ays practiced in a heroic manner the 
rules for humility which he gave to his followers. 
"He was hungry and thirsty for the humility of the 
Heart of Jesus. The opprobrium which he sought 
and accepted with thanksgiving attested that he 
would, at every cost, practice the most perfect hu- 
mility. Nevertheless what did he do w^hen, accused 
of being a corrupter of youth, he was condemned to 
submit to an infamous flogging in presence of the 
students of the University of Paris? Although he 
desired ardently to satisfy his thirst for ignominy, 
according to the example of his divine Master, one 
consideration arrested him. 

"He had gained to Jesus Christ some distinguished 
young men, who would make His Holy Name known 



Humility of the Understanding. . 209 

and His Sacred Heart adored ; but if he allowed 
himself to be beaten publicly, these young men 
would look upon him with horror, and Ignatius, 
disgraced, would no longer be able to keep them 
under the banner of this King; therefore the 
glory of God and the salvation of souls pre- 
vailed over his love for humiliations, and he 
defended and justified himself. Consequently, at 
the moment when they expected to see him 
flogged and disgraced at the feet of the rector 
of the University, they saw, on the contrary, and 
with utter astonishment, the venerable Superior fall 
at his feet and ask pardon for having too easily be- 
lieved the calumnious reports, and then proclaim 
openly, before the w^hole University, Loyola to be a 
model of virtue, and a saint." 

Secondly, as you know that without Almighty 
God you can do nothing, you should never rely on 
your own strength, but, like St. Philip Neri, mis- 
trust self. Owing to the fact that the proud rely on 
their own strength they fall. Consider what hap- 
pened to St. Peter. He declared that neither suf- 
ferings nor death would be able to separate him 
from his divine Master: "Yea, though I should die 
with Thee, I will not deny Thee" (Matt. xxvi. 35). 
Because he uttered these words in a spirit of self- 
confidence, he had the misfortune to deny his blaster 
almost as soon as he entered the house of the high 
priest. Let us profit by his sad example, and guard 
carefully against trusting to our good resolutions, 
our good will ; let us place all our confidence in God, 
frequently repeating: 'T can do all things in Him 
who strengtheneth me" (Phil. iv. 13). 

Yes, I can do all things, but not of myself. I can 
do them only in God, who is my strength. Then 
you may hope to do great things, for Isaias says : 



210 • Humility of the Understanding. 

'*They that hope in the Lord shall renew their 
strength" (Is. xl. 31). The humble draw new 
strength from their confidence in the Lord. By dis 
trusting themselves they become strong with the 
strength of the Almighty One. He who desires that 
God should make use of him for great things 
should become the most humble. If the enemy seeks 
to tempt you by assuring you that you can rely on 
yourself in all circumstances, that you are safe, that 
you will not fall, say with David : ''In thee, O Lord, 
have I hoped, let me never be confounded" (Ps. 
XXX. 2). I have placed all my hope in Thee, my 
God. Suffer me not to be brought to shame. Let 
me not lose Thy grace and become a slave of hell. 
Thirdly, if you fall into sin, be not discouraged, 
but humble yourself, lament your fall, and as you 
now more plainly see your own weakness turn with 
still greater confidence to your God. To be impa- 
tient with yourself would proclaim a want of hu- 
mility ; surprise at your fall would indicate pride and 
conceit. It is at the time of temptation and sin that 
you must trust more fully in the goodness and com- 
passion of God. Your infidelity must be a new in- 
centive to still greater hope in His mercy. This is 
what the Apostle wishes to teach us when he says : 
•'To them that love God, all things work together 
unto good" (Rom. viii. 28). Under "all things," 
St. Augustine includes even sins, inasmuch as they 
lead to contrition and humility. One day Our Lord 
said to St. Gertrude : 'Tf a person soils his hand, he 
washes it, and then it is cleaner than before. And 
so with the soul after sin. If she purifies herself 
by true contrition, she will be more pleasing to Me 
than before." God sometimes allows souls that are 
not well grounded in humility to fall into faults, that 
they may acquire distrust of self, and place all their 



Humility of the Understanding. 211 

hope in His assistance. Have you committed some 
fault? Rise up by an act of love and contrition, 
firmly resolved to do better and to confide in God 
alone. 

Fourthly, should you hear that another has fallen 
into grievous sin, do not express wonder, but com- 
passion, and tremble for yourself. Never glory in 
your freedom from the faults that you remark in 
others. As a punishment, the Lord might permit 
you to commit similar transgressions. The i\postle 
Paul warns his disciples never to treat a sinner 
wath disdain, and before correcting any one to re- 
flect that they, too, might very easily fall into 
the same, if not greater, sins. ''Brethren, if a man 
be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, 
instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, con- 
sidering th3^self, lest thou also be tempted" 
(Gal. vi. i). 

The Abbot Machetes, as Cassian relates, humbly 
acknowledged, on a certain occasion, that he had 
fallen most shamefully into three particular faults 
which he had censured impatiently and with undue 
severity in his brethren. Truly humble souls, en- 
lightened from above, recognize better than others 
not only the perfection of God, but also their own 
poverty and sinfulness. The saints, therefore, al- 
though leading lives so devout, so different from 
those of others, considered themselves the vilest sin- 
ners on earth, St. Francis of Assisi, for example, 
called himself the greatest of sinners. St. Thomas 
of Villanova was in continual anguish of mind at the 
thought of having to render an account to God of 
his sinful life, as he called it. St. Gertrude w^as 
amazed that the earth did not open under her feet 
and swallow her up on account of her sins. St. Paul 
the Hermit cried out with tears, ''Woe to me, poor 



212 Humility of the Understanding. 

sinner! I do not deserve to bear the name of 
monk!'' Father Avila relates something similar of 
a very devout person, who begged God to allow her 
to see the state of her soul. Her prayer was granted. 
Although she had never committed a mortal sin, 
her soul appeared to her so hideous and abominable 
that she exclaimed : ''O ni}^ God, for Thy mercy's 
sake, take from my sight this monster !" 

Another excellent practice of humility is never to 
prefer one's self to another. Let us think of 
our own sins, of our own weaknesses, and abase 
ourselves. We know for certain the sins that we 
have committed, while we do not know those of 
others. x\gain, we do not know how many hidden 
virtues may belong to him whom we despise. We 
must reflect, also, that if we had made good use of 
our measure of light and graces we should be saints. 
Had Almighty God given those graces to an in- 
fidel, he might now% perhaps, be a seraph of sanctity, 
v/hile w^e are still so imperfect. The thought of our 
ingratitude should urge us to humble ourselves un- 
der all circumstances, for St. Thomas says : ''Sin 
becomes great in proportion to the ingratitude of the 
sinner." A single sin, therefore, that one man may 
commit, may be more grievous in the sight of God 
than a hundred committed by another favored with 
fewer graces. God's gifts have been lavished on 
you, and you well know how many are your sins. 
Your whole life has been an unbroken chain of 
voluntary faults, and your good works, if you have 
any, are, perhaps, so full of self-love and imperfec- 
tion, that they deserve more punishment than 
reward. 

From the foregoing considerations, you ought, as 
St. Magdalene of Pazzi recommends to all Religious, 
esteem yourself unworthy even to kiss the ground 



Humility of the Understanding. 213 

on which others walk. From the depths of your 
nothingness, therefore, raise your voice to God, and 
exclaim : "O God, come to my assistance ! O Lord, 
make haste to help me !" Help me, or I perish ! 
Help me, or I shall offend Thee more grievously 
than all others ! Repeat this aspiration frequently. 
Let us conclude wath the celebrated words of St. 
Bernard : ''The soul has nothing to fear from hu- 
miliation, however great it may be; but she must 
carefully shun the least pride, for it might plunge 
her into the depths of misery." 



CHAPTER XXV. 

IbumiUt^ ot tbe TimtlL 

*T=^UMiLiTY of the understanding, as has been said, 
<-■-& consists in being convinced that we are de- 
serving of contempt. But humiHty of the will is 
greater and more meritorious. It consists in the 
desire to be despised by others, and in rejoicing in 
contempt. St. Bernard says of humility of the will : 
*'The first degree of humility consists in this, that 
one has no desire to be placed over others ; the 
second, that he desires to be subject to others ; the 
third, that in a state of subjection he bears in a tran- 
quil manner every offence that may be heaped upon 
him." This is properly the humility of heart which 
Jesus Christ teaches when He says: ''Learn of Me, 
that I am meek and humble of Heart !" In one of 
his May sermons on Ma^y Magnifying God, Father 
William Humphrey, S.J., says : Humility is not self- 
depreciation, or a making one's self out to be less 
than one is, or worse than one is. Humility is 
simply the clear, conscious knowledge, the abiding 
and vivid recollection, the practical recognition and 
confession, that one is a creature, and, as such, has 
a Creator, from whom depends, not only all that one 
has, but also all that one is. The virtue of humility 
is, in other words, the first article of the Creed, "I 
believe in God,'' carried out into practice. We can 
not move hand or foot, or draw a breath, or conceive 
an idea, or utter a word, without concurrent action 
and direct cooperation on the part of Our Creator. 
In all things we are entirely and absolutely depen- 
dent on the triune God — on the Almighty, who 



Humility of the Will, 215 

made us. *'In Him we live and move and are" 
(Acts xvii. 28). 

"In order to be humble, this knowledge by the 
creature of its dependence upon its Creator must 
be not merely speculative but practical. It must be 
not merely possessed by and abiding in the intellect, 
but acting on and moving the will. It must be not 
merely an idea, but an idea carried out into action. 
The fruit of humility is obedience. There is no 
living humility without obedience. God is a spirit 
with an intelligence and a will ; and of that will He 
has given an external expression in a law ; and by 
means of that law His uncreated will presses on the 
will of His rational creatures ; and when the rational 
creature submits beneath that pressure and obeys, 
it thereby confesses its created nature, and so per- 
forms an act of humility." 

This humility has many degrees, and especially 
three. "The first degree of humility," as Father 
Vercruysse says in his Meditations, "consists in the 
habitual disposition of losing all things, possessions, 
reputation, health, life itself, and to suffer all 
things rather than commit a mortal sin. This first 
degree is necessary for all Christians. The second 
degree consists in the habitual disposition of losing 
all and suffering all rather than commit a deliberate 
venial sin. Every true Religious ought to strive to 
attain it ; otherwise ( i ) he will keep in the first de- 
gree only with difficulty, or rather he will not do it. 
'He that contemneth small things shall fall by little 
and little' (Ecclus. xix. i) ; (2) he can not imagine 
he is fulfilling the obligation he has contracted be- 
fore God .of tending to perfection ; for nothing 
is more opposed to perfection than venial sin; (3) 
he can never enjoy true peace of heart because he is 
resisting God's designs upon him : 'Who hath re- 



2i6 Humility of the Will. 

sisted Him, and hath had peace?' (Job ix. 4) ; (4) 
he will never be fit to do great things for the salva- 
tion of souls. 

''The third degree consists in the disposition of 
rather being poor with Jesus Christ in His poverty 
than in abundance ; of rather being forgotten and 
despised with Jesus Christ, who was humiliated and 
injured, than to live in honor; rather to be on the 
cross with Jesus crucified than to enjoy the con- 
solations and delights of this life, in order that we 
may have a greater resemblance to Jesus, our divine 
Model, and be better able to prove our love. This 
habitual disposition, or third degree of humility, is 
not impossible to human weakness sustained by 
grace. It is the perfect imitation of Jesus Christ; 
it gives peace and joy of heart in the midst of tribu- 
lations, an abundance of divine blessings, the assur- 
ance of salvation and the pledge of greater glory in 
heaven." 

The ideal Religious will make every effort to at- 
tain this third degree of humility, which is the high- 
est degree of Christian perfection, containing in it- 
self all that is most heroic in virtue, and produc- 
ing a most intimate union, as well as resemblance 
with Jesus Christ, who for love of us willingly em- 
braced the ignominy of the cross: "Having joy set 
before Him, endured the cross, despising the 
shame'' (Heb- xii. 2), and who communicates Him- 
self fully to those souls who give themselves entirely 
to Him. It is the most meritorious way of salva- 
tion, because it implies the greatest love and an un- 
interrupted course of sacrifices. Let us pray with 
fervor and constancy : "Jesus, meek and humble of 
heart, make my heart like unto Thine !" 

As Father Huguet says in The Month of the 
Sacred Heart: "Humility is the characteristic and 



Humility of the Will. 217 

distinctive virtue of the Heart of Jesus, the virtue 
that He loved above all the others, and recom- 
mended in His discourses ; the virtue that He sup- 
ported by His own example, inspired His friends to 
practice and recompensed in His saints. He was 
humble of heart, for His humility was one of choice, 
a sincere humility and one accompanied with the 
interior dispositions conformable to the state of a 
voluntary victim of sin. 

''What a part humility plays in the life of Jesus! 
It animates His acts, and all His mysteries are its 
manifestations. The humility of the Heart of Jesus 
causes Him to descend from heaven to earth, and 
becomes the law^ of His Incarnation. Humility held 
Him concealed for nine months in Mary ; humility 
placed Him in a crib; humihty made Him fly into 
Egypt, live obscure and obedient in Nazareth, peni- 
tent in the desert, and covered with confusion under 
the ignominious clothing of our crimes. Humility 
directs the words and actions of His public life. 
Humility becomes His well-beloved spouse, and He 
loved it even to excess, even to a sort of delirium, 
in the later mysteries of His mortal life ! . . . And 
yet He finds the secret of surpassing all these prodi- 
gies of humility, and of perpetuating them in the 
Blessed Eucharist ! 

''The humility of Our Lord was of another nature, 
and much more profound than ours. He had quite a 
different and more eminent knowledge of the infinite 
distance there is between the greatness of God exist- 
ing by Himself and the baseness of His creatures 
drawm from nothing; and as He united in His own 
person these two extremes His soul was continually 
plunged into the most lively and profound senti- 
ments of the divine mystery and of His own base- 
ness. Jfesus, humble Jesus, give me humility, teach 



2i8 Humility of the Will. 

me humility! I know that if I possess humiHty I 
possess with it all graces, as God refuses nothing to 
the humble. I know that by humility I can glorify 
Thy name, and please Thy Heart. 'Thou wilt save 
the humble people,' said David. 'Thou hast re- 
garded the humility of thy handmaid,' said the holy 
Virgin. 

''O Saviour, abject and humble! give me the 
science of the saints, self-knowledge, and the desire 
of self-contempt. O good Jesus ! who hast suffered 
for love of me so rnuch opprobrium and humiliation, 
impress in my heart esteem for it and make me de- 
sire to practice it.'' 



But by what means can one attain this humility? 
By the total abandonment of one's self to God's holy 
will, by placing one's self without reserve into the 
hands of our good Lord and Master to be disposed 
of according to His pleasure. We can give our- 
selves. When this gift is made entirely and forever, 
God fulfils His designs upon us, and gives us all 
that of which we have need to cooperate in their 
execution. The first light that we receive from 
Heaven should produce in us humility, which will 
finally merit for us all the others. Genuine humility 
leads to perfection. Humility means sanctity. A 
heavenly treasure indeed is that profound humility 
which is generous, peaceable, and unchangeable; 
which, on one side, places us in the quality of sin- 
ners, beneath nothingness, and on the other elevates 
lis above the world, the demon and ourselves, and 
renders us great with the greatness of God, strong 
with the strength of God, and holy with the holiness 
of God. 

The more purely one loves, the more perfect is his 
humility. Pure charity despoils man of himself; it 



Humility of the Will. 219 

clothes him with Jesus Christ: and in that consists 
true humiHty. It causes us to Hve no longer in our- 
selves; it causes Jesus Christ to live in us. "I live, 
now not I, but Christ liveth in me/' says St. Paul 
(I Gal. ii. 20). 

St. Augustine's beautiful and sublime prayer, 
''D online Jesti! Noverim me, Noverim Te," com- 
mends itself to every Religious. ''His Holiness 
Pope Leo XHI.," as the Nezv Raccolta tells us, "by 
a Brief of September 25, 1883, granted to all the 
faithful who with a contrite heart and devotion shall 
recite this petition, an indulgence of fifty days, once 
a day." 

DoMiNE Jesu, noverim me, noverim te, 

Nee aliquid cupiam nisi te. 

Oderim me et amem te ; 

Omnia agam propter te. 

Humiliem me, exaltem te ; 

Nihil cogitem nisi te. 

Mortificem me et vivam in te: 

Qnaecumque eveniant accipiam a te. 

Perseqnar me, sequar te. 

Semperqne optem sequi te. 

Fugiam me, confiigiam ad te, 

Ut merear defendi a te. 

Timeam mihi, timeam te^ 

Et sim inter electos a te. 

Diffidam mihi, fidam in te, 

Obedire velim propter te. 

Ad nihil afficiar nisi ad te, 

Et pauper sim propter te. 

Aspice me, ut diligam te. 

Voca me, ut videam te 

Et in seternum fruar te. Amen. 

Lord Jesus, let me know myself, let me know Thee, 
And desire nothing else but Thee. 
Let me hate myself and love Thee; 
And do all things for the sake of Thee. 
Let me humble mvself, and exalt Thee. 



220 Humility of the Will. 

And think of nothing but only of Thee. 

Let me die to myself, and live in Thee, 

And take whatever happens as coming from Thee* 

Let me forsake myself and walk after Thee; 

And ever desire to follow Thee. 

Let me flee from myself, and turn to Thee; 

That so I may merit to be defended by Thee. 

Let me fear for myself, let me fear Thee; 

And be among those who are chosen by Thee. 

Let me distrust myself, and trust in Thee, 

And ever obey for the love of Thee. 

Let me cleave to nothing but only to Thee, 

And ever be poor for the sake of Thee. 

Look upon me, that I may love Thee; 

Call me, that I may see Thee 

And forever possess Thee. Amen. 

Genuine humility keeps the mind serene and the 
heart unruffled in the midst of persecution. Com- 
menting upon these words of Job: '1 have sinned, 
and indeed I have offended, and I have not received 
what I have deserved" (Job xxxiii. 2y), St. 
Gregory says : *'Many express contempt of them- 
selves with their lips, but can not bear to be told 
aught disparaging." If they talk of themselves 
slightingly, they do not speak, as Job did, in a spirit 
of truth, nor as they think in their inmost soul. 
Their humility is not sincere, not genuine ; it is as- 
sum.ed. They desire to be esteemed humble, 
though they are not humble. If they had genuine 
humiHty they would not be so sensitive to criticism, 
they would not excuse and defend themselves so 
strenuously, they would not become so excited and 
confused. Cassian tells a story of a monk of this 
kind, who once visited the Abbot Serapion. In 
speech and bearing he was most humble. He de- 
clared himself the greatest sinner, and was con- 
stantly vilifying himself. He did not deserve to 
breathe the air, he was unworthy that the earth 



Humility of the Will. 221 

should bear him, such were his words. He would 
sit only on the ground, and suffer no one to wash 
his feet. After their meal, the abbot began a con- 
versation on some points of the spiritual life, and 
gave his guest a little good advice. Among other 
things, he told him very gently that, as he was still 
young and strong, it would be more to the purpose 
to work for his living as did the other monks, in- 
stead of roaming from cell to cell. The monk took 
the advice badly and showed his anger in his coun- 
tenance. Then the abbot said to him : "How is this, 
4iiy son? Just now you spoke contemptuously of 
yourself, and yet you can not take, without anger 
and resentment, a little advice given in all gentle- 
ness and love. Did you, perhaps, expect me to ap- 
ply to you the words of the Wise Man: The just 
is first accuser of himself (Prov. xviii. 17), since 
3^ou said so much that was bad of yourself, and did 
3'ou merely seek by an appearance of self-contempt 
to win praise ?'' 

Alas ! how often the same thing happens in many 
convents ! A Religious acknowledges that she is 
the most sinful person in the world, that she has de- 
served hell a thousand times, but let the Superior or 
one of her Sisters gently remind her of a fault, or 
call attention in general terms to her tepidity and 
bad example, and she at once defends herself, and 
inquires in an angry voice : ''What have you re- 
marked in me? What is amiss? Keep your ad- 
monitions for such and such a one, who do far 
worse than I." But how is this? You have often 
said that you deserved hell a thousand times, and 
now you can not bear a word ! Ah ! such humility is 
on the lips ; it is not of the heart. It is very far 
from the humility that Jesus Christ has commanded. 

''Woe to us!" exclaimed St. Gregory; "by our 



222 Humility of the Will. 

hypocrisy and dissimulation we angle for the esteem 
of the world. What appears humility in us is really 
the grossest pride. VVe bow down before men that 
they may praise and esteem us. If this is not so, 
why do you say of yourself that which you do not 
want others to believe? Did you speak from the 
heart, and to witness to the truth, you would wish 
to be believed. But if you do not wish to be be- 
lieved, it is a sign that your apparent humility is 
only a bait to gain the esteem of men." The Holy 
Spirit teaches us the same : "There is one that hum- 
bleth himself wickedly, and his interior is full of 
deceit'' (Ecclus. xix. 23). Could there be greater 
deceit, greater dissimulation than to lower and abase 
one's self in order to gain the esteem of men? 
Could there be greater pride than to wish to appear 
humble? "To strive after the honor of humility 
by aping humility is no virtue," says St. Bernard, 
"but the subversion of virtue." St. Ambrose in- 
veighed against such hypocrisy : "Many have t?ie 
appearance, but not the virtufe of humility. They 
display it outwardly, despise it inwardly." 

Pride and craving after esteem are so immoder- 
ately great in some that they find a thousand ways 
to gratify their vanity. Whether in a straightfor- 
ward or indirect way, they seek honor. "The 
proud," says St. Gregory, "fancy all they do well 
done. Generally they beg to be told of their faults, 
being persuaded that they will hear themselves 
praised. The request to be shown their faults ap- 
])ears to spring from humility. But they have no 
humility ; they have no other end in view than to be 
praised. Others, again, begin by declaring them- 
selves and all that they do w^orthy of blame. They 
express dissatisfaction with their work only to court 
approbation, and to have the pleasure of hear- 



Humility of the IV ill. 223 

ing it said that it could not have been done better. 
Spiritual writers call such humility "Humility with 
a hook/' As a fisherman uses line and hook to draw 
in what he can not reach himself, so the proud em- 
ploy false humility to secure the praise which can 
not be otherwise obtained. St. Vincent de Paul says 
that humility looks most beautiful to all who merely 
gaze at it, but its exercise is most repellent to na- 
ture; for true humility consists in the love of one's 
own abjection. St. John Climacus remarks that he 
who calls himself a great sinner is not thereby 
humble, unless he sincerely wishes others to credit 
what he says and to treat him accordingly. ''It is all 
very well," says the saint, ''to use vilifying terms 
of one's self, but it is better still to receive with 
serenity the ill that others say about us, and even to 
rejoice at it." 

All teachers of the spiritual life admonish us not 
to say anything that could redound to our praise. 
This advice is similar to that which Tobias gave his 
son : ''Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind or in 
thy words" (Tob. iv. 14). The Apostle Paul has 
taught us the same by his example. After enu- 
merating, for the edification of the faithful and the 
honor of God, the great things he had accom- 
plished, having been rapt even to the third heaven, 
he says : "1 forbear, lest any man should think of me 
above that which he seeth in me, or anything he 
heareth from me" (2 Cor. xii. 6). "How nobly," 
says St. Bernard, speaking of this passage, "does 
the Apostle say : 'I forbear !' The arrogant do not 
forbear, the proud do not forbear, neither does he 
who prides himself on his works, nor he who tries 
to pass for that which he is not. Only the truly 
himible man forbears for the sake of his own soul ; 
he loves to remain unknown and esteemed as noth- 



224 Humility of the Will. 

ing." ''And this/' says The Imitation^ ''is the high- 
est science, the most profitable lesson, truly to know 
and despise ourselves/' 

St. Arsenius was the tutor of Arcadius and 
Honorius, the sons of the Emperor Theodosius, 
whom they succeeded on the imperial throne. He 
had held high positions in the world, and he was 
distinguished for profound learning. After be- 
coming a monk, no word ever escaped his lips that 
smacked of pride or gave the faintest hint of his 
great knowledge. -He used to apply to the most 
simple of the monks for lessons in the spiritual Hfe, 
declaring that he was not worthy to be their scholar 
in so subHme a study. In his conduct toward his 
brethren he was frank and cordial, simple and un- 
assuming. We are told in the life of St. Jerome 
that he was descended from a noble family, and yet 
in all his works we find not the least hint of it. Set 
no value on what you were or were not in the world. 
Virtue and especially humility are prized in a Re- 
ligious. 

If you would be truly humble, never praise your- 
self in any way, as has been said above. Be silent 
on your general conduct, your talents, your good 
works, your distinguished descent, your relatives. 
''Let another praise thee, and not thy own mouth," 
says the Wise Man (Prov. xxvii. 2). Remember 
the proverb : "Self-praise is no recommendation.'' 
If you find it necessary sometimes to speak of your- 
self and your afifairs, try rather to depreciate than 
to elevate yourself. "In humbling yourself, you 
have nothing to fear," says St. Bernard ; "but in 
elevating yourself even at the smallest expense of 
truth, you may do yourself great harm." He who, 
in passing through a low doorway, stoops more 
than is necessary, receives no injury; but he who 



Humility of the Will. 225 

does not lower his head sufficiently, were it only by 
a finger's breadth, wall be sure to hurt himself. If 
you must recount your deeds, choose rather to make 
known your faults than those actions that may have 
some little appearance of virtue. But the best way 
of all is to say neither good nor bad of yourself. 

St. Bonaventure, in an excellent argument, says : 
*'Be assured your good qualities are perceived by 
others ; if you yourself are silent in regard to them, 
they will love you all the more, and double praise 
will be yours : first, for the good qualities, and 
secondly, for the fact of your hiding them. But if 
3^ou try to show them off, you will be ridiculed. In 
the same degree as they before esteemed you, they 
will now despise you, and in the same proportion 
that you once edified, you will now disedify." 

If others praise you, humble yourself interiorly, 
and cast a glance on your manifold faults. St. 
Gregory says: 'The proud rejoice in false praise; 
the humble, on the contrary, are saddened and mor- 
tified even by well-deserved praise. They are like 
David, who said of himself : T am poor and in la- 
bors from my youth ; and being exalted, have been 
humbled and troubled''' (Ps. Ixxxvii. 16). The 
saint means that the humble man is sad on hearing 
himself praised, because he does not attribute to 
himself the qualifications ascribed to him, and be- 
cause he dreads to lose, by self-complacency, what- 
ever merit he may have acquired in the sight of 
God. It grieves him to think that it might be said 
to him : ''Thou didst receive good things in thy life- 
time" (Luke xvi. 25). You have gloried in your 
pride, and so received your recompense. The praise 
that elates the proud abashes the humble. The Wise 
Man teaches this when he says : ''As silver is tried 
in the fining-pot, and gold in the furnace, so a man 



226 Humility of the Will. 

is tried by the mouth of him that praiseth'' (Prov. 
xxvii. 21 ). Is the gold or silver pure? The fire 
cleanses it, and all that is impure in it is consumed 
by the flames. Praise, says the Wise Man, produces 
the same effect. If it puffs a man up, he is not pure 
gold or silver, for he does not stand the assay of the 
tongue. But if he humbles himself when praised, 
he is pure gold, since the fire of the tongue does riot 
consume him. He is, on the contrary, refined and 
purified by it. The humble man keeps his peace in 
the midst of humiliations. 

Bear in mind the words of St. Francis of Assisi : 
*T am only what I am in the sight of God.'' 
Do you think that God values you more highly be- 
cause man esteems you more? Understand that 
if you take pleasure in the praise of men, and there- 
by become haughty and exalt yourself above others. 
He will instantly repulse you, though men may con- 
tinue to praise. Be assured that human laudation 
makes you no better than you are. St. Augustine 
says ; "Just as insults and invectives do not deprive us 
of the merit of virtue, so the praise of others does 
not make us better than we really are/' 

If you must guard against complacency in the 
praise you may receive, still more cautious must you 
be with regard to honors and dignities. Never aim 
at such things in the convent. According to the 
advice of St. Magdalene of Pazzi, fly from what- 
ever makes a show, for in it pride is surely con- 
cealed. Yes, it is not enough to fly from it — you 
must conceive aversion for it. St. Hilarius main- 
tains that all the honors of the world are baits of 
the devil, by vv'^hich he gains souls for hell. If vain- 
glory is productive of so much unhappiness in the 
world, it is far more ruinous in convents, St. Leo 
says that the Church of God is greatly injured and 



Humility of the Will. 227 

dishonored by the contentions of ambitious Re- 
Hgious and vainglorious priests, who ought to be 
examples of humility. St. Teresa, speaking of Re- 
ligious, says, ''The Spirit of God can never reign 
where vainglory dwells. We must regard the con- 
vent as lost whose inmates strive after honor and 
precedence. I would rather see the convent reduced 
to ashes than that vainglory should find entrance in- 
to it." St. Jane de Chantal said the same : 'T would 
rather see my convent swallowxd up by the earth 
than that vainglory and desire for office should creep 
into it." St. Francis Xavier says : *Tt is unworthy 
of a Christian, who ought to have the shame of 
Jesus Christ constantly before his eyes, to desire 
worldly honors or rejoice in them." How much 
more shameful is it in a Religious, who has conse- 
crated herself entirely to Jesus Christ, our blessed 
Saviour, who spent so many years on earth un- 
known and despised ! St. Magdalene of Pazzi says : 
''The honor of a Religious consists in placing her- 
self beneath every one, consequently, she dislikes 
being placed above or preferred to any one." St. 
Thomas of Villanova warned his brethren : "Vie 
with one another as to w^ho shall be the more hum- 
ble, and therefore the more pleasing to Jesus 
Christ." Cry out with David: 'T have chosen to be 
an abject in the house of my God rather than to 
dwell in the tabernacles of sinners" (Ps. Ixxxiii, 
11). I prefer to lead a humble life in the house of 
my God rather than enjoy the honors and distinc- 
tions of the world. Banish the thought of its vani- 
ties by reflecting on the words of St. Bonaventure : 
"Would you be holy? Then desire nothing more 
than to remain unknown, and to be counted as 
nought." , 

Do not envy those Religious who have more in- 



228 Humility of the Will. 

telligence, more ability, or who are more esteemed 
and honored than yourself; on the contrary, feel a 
holy jealousy only for those whom Almighty God 
loves better, who are more humble than you. Hu- 
miliation is worth more than all the honors, all the 
applause of the world. The most sublime science 
of a Religious consists in knowing, loving, and 
glorifying God ; in humbling herself, in esteeming 
herself as nothing, in rejoicing when she finds her- 
self despised and neglected. Perhaps God has 
Avithheld distinguished talents from you because, in 
His divine foresight. He saw that they would lead 
you to destruction. Be satisfied w^ith your more 
ordinary or less brilliant gifts, embrace the little 
opportunities that they afi^ord you to practice hu- 
mility, which is the surest, yes, the only way to holi- 
ness and peace in this world and eternal salvation 
in the next. Does your neighbor understand better 
than you how to discharge business affairs, and how 
to procure general esteem? Then let all your care 
be to surpass her in virtue, and especially in humil- 
ity, according to the admonition of the Apostle : 'Tn 
humility let each esteem others better than himself' 
(Phil. ii. 3). He who has the honor of the first 
place has, also, the risk of becoming vain, and is in 
danger of losing sight of heavenly things, as David 
says : ''And man, when he was in honor, did not 
understand : he is compared to senseless beasts, and 
is become like to them" (Ps. xlviii. 13). If you 
would walk securely, fly honor, and willingly em- 
brace those occupations that are held in low esteem. 
The Religious who earnestly desires self-sanctifica- 
tionwill ahvays seek the very lowest offices in the con- 
vent ; she will rejoice in performing the most menial 
services, congratulating herself on being allowed to 
do what others shun. The spouse in the Canticles 



Humility of the Will. 229 

is compared sometimes to a solitary, sometimes to a 
warrior, and again to a vine-dresser. But in all 
these different characters, she is always the beloved 
of the sacred Spouse. The Religious, in like man- 
ner, should do all that she does through love for the 
Saviour, and in all her occupations appear as the 
beloved of Jesus Christ. Animated by this spirit, 
no service should appear to her unw^orthy of her ac- 
ceptance. The duties esteemed lowest and most 
degrading by worldlings are the highest and most 
honorable in the convent, the most desired by the 
saints, since Jesus Christ takes most pleasure in 
them. 

St. Augustine says : 'Tn our humility consists our 
perfection." Since we are so imperfect in the ex- 
ercise of the different virtues, we should, at least, 
be perfect in the art of humbling ourselves. If an 
occasion presents itself to practice a little act of hu- 
mility, as, for instance, when we receive some cor- 
rection while attending to our duties, we should 
rejoice and accept it as desirable. If blamed justly,, 
let us offer our shame and our blushes to God in 
satisfaction for the fault that we have committed. 
As regards all accusations, both the true and J:he false, 
it is very meritorious to refrain from any defense of 
ourselves. St. Teresa says: ''A Religious gains 
more by neither defending nor excusing her- 
self when accused of a fault than by hearing ten 
sermons." It may be necessary, however, in excep- 
tional cases to defend one's self, in order to prevent 
a public scandal or an injury to a good cause. 

Again, beloved soul, if you wish to attain perfect 
humility, you must be ready to bear patiently what- 
ever contempt and bad treatment you may encoun- 
ter. He who sincerely deems himself worthy of con- 
tempt on account of his sins, meekly bears it when it 



230 Humility of the Will. 

comes. Humiliation is the touchstone of the saints. 
St. Chrysostom says: ''Meekness under injuries is 
the surest sign of humihty." And St. Francis of 
Assisi, speaking on the same subject, says: ''Many 
place their holiness in multiplied prayers and the 
performance of other good works, but they can not 
bear the least affront. They do not understand that 
the endurance of contempt is much more meritori- 
ous." It is better to bear an injury than to fast ten 
days on bread and water. If, for instance, some- 
thing is granted to one of your Sisters that is denied 
to you ; if others are listened to and you are ridi- 
culed ; if others are praised for all that they do, and 
are chosen for honorable offices, while no notice is 
taken of you ; yes, if in all things and on every occa- 
sion you are put down, and your neighbor exalted, 
then will it be seen, says St. Dorotheus, that you are 
truly humble, if you accept all with tranquillity and 
satisfaction. Pray for those who wound you most ; 
they are truly the physicians appointed by God to 
cure your pride, that dreadful sickness which might 
■cause your death. 

When we voluntarily take upon ourselves certain 
acts of humility, we do well; but the very best hu- 
miliations are those that come to us unsought. If, 
for instance, som.e one reproves us, complains of us, 
injures us, derides us, and we receive it patiently 
as from the hand of God, and bear it for the love of 
Jesus Christ mocked and derided, then do we prac- 
tice true humility. Let us remember the words of 
the Holy Ghost: "Gold and silver are tried in the 
fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humilia- 
tion" (Ecclus. ii. 5). "Virtue without trial is no 
virtue," says St. Magdalene of Pazzi. Whoever does 
not bear contempt can never attain perfection. "My 
spikenard sent forth the odor thereof" (Cant. i. ii), 



Humility of the Will. 231 

says the spouse in the Canticles. The spikenard is 
an aromatic plant, which gives forth its perfume 
only when crushed. O the delicious perfume the 
humble soul sends up to God when she receives con- 
tempt patiently and rejoices at being ill-treated and 
little esteemed ! When the holy monk Zacharias 
w^as asked what one should do to attain true humil- 
ity, he took his cowl, threw it on the ground, and 
stamping on it, said: ''He who rejoices in being 
treated as I treat this cowl is truly humble." How 
happy is the death of the Religious w^ho has led a 
despised life in the cloister, who has borne con- 
tempt w^th patience! Such souls do not hate their 
persecutors. Ah, no ! At their dying hour they will 
thank and bless them. St. John Climacus tells of a 
monk who, for fifteen years, was looked upon as of 
no account, and treated with contempt by his breth- 
ren. When Albarius, such was his name, lay on 
his deathbed, he thanked them heartily for the love 
they had always show^n him by keeping him in holy 
humility, and soon after expired in the peace of 
heaven. St. Magdalene of Pazzi says that the tender- 
est caresses the heavenly Bridegroom bestows on 
His beloved souls are usually crosses and vexations. 
Let us keep the words of Our Lord ever before our 
minds : ''Blessed shall you be when men shall hate 
you, and when tliey shall separate you, and shall re- 
proach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the 
Son of man's sake" (Luke vi. 22). St. Peter says 
on this point : 'Tf you be reproached for the name 
of Christ, you shall be blessed ; for that which is of 
the honor, glory, and power of God, and that which 
is His Spirit, resteth upon you" (i Pet. iv. 14). 

The saints became saints not by approbation and 
honor, but by contempt and humiliation. The holy 
martyr Ignatius, who was highly esteemed by all 



232 Humility of the Will. 

who knew him, was led to Rome as a criminal, to be 
thrown to the wild beasts. On the journey the 
guard overwhelmed him with every kind of insult, 
but in the joy of his heart Ignatius exclaimed: 
"Now I begin to be a disciple of Christ !'' 

What did not St. Jane Frances do, during the 
seven years that she lived with her father-in-law, to 
gain the heart of a servant who was insolent and 
who treated her with continual contempt ! She en- 
deavored to please her in all she could imagine that 
would be agreeable to her. On seeing the Baroness 
de Chantal thus humble herself to one who became 
more impertinent the more kindness she received, 
some one remarked : ''You but lose your time if you 
strive to win her by such treatment." The saint 
replied: ''That might be if I thought of her alone; 
but what is done for God can not be lost, and in 
proportion that men are ungrateful God is more 
liberal.'' "When your father-in-law dies, you will 
no doubt free yourself from such a wicked crea- 
ture,'' some one remarked. "No, I will arm myself 
then to defend her," she said. "God makes use of 
her to give me a cross ; why should I do her harm ?" 
It was also said to her that she and not this servant 
should have the government of the house. "God 
has regulated it thus for my benefit," she replied ; 
"for now I have more time to give to my exercises 
of piety." 

St. Francis Xavier, while preaching at Macao in 
the presence of a great number of infidels, was in- 
sulted by the people, who threw stones at him, 
in order to silence him. The saint continued, seem- 
ingly unconscious of them ; which so touched their 
hearts that they were more moved by his patience 
and meekness than by what he was saying, and 
manv became converted. 



Humility of the Will. 233 

"You are astonished because I suffer with tran- 
quillity this insolent attack/' said St. Francis de 
Sales to a Religious who had heard injurious 
language addressed to him. ''Do you not see that 
God has ordained, from all eternity, the grace He 
has given me to support voluntarily this oppro- 
brium ? Should I not drink the chalice which has 
been prepared by the hands of so good a Father?'' 

Many persons visited St. Francis Xavier solely 
for the purpose of witnessing his admirable sweet- 
ness and self-control. St. Ignatius Loyola, passing 
one day with some of his companions near a field 
where some men were at work, was ridiculed by 
them, and called names. The saint stopped a mo- 
ment, looked at them with a smiling face, then 
turned and gave them his blessing ; which so discon- 
certed them that, struck with admiration, they ex- 
claimed : 'Tt is a saint! it must be a saint!" The 
calm endurance of contempt is both meritorious and 
edifying. ''The meek," says St. John Chrysostom, 
*Vho peaceably bear injury, benefit both themselves 
and all around them ; for nothing so edifies others as 
the gentle endurance of ill-treatment." Father Maffei 
relates of a certain Jesuit missionary in Japan that 
one day as he was preaching a malicious man ap- 
proached and spat in his face. The Father quietly 
wiped the filth away with his handkerchief, and 
went on with his sermon as if nothing had hap- 
pened. One of his hearers, impressed by the action, 
was immediately converted to Christianity. ''A re- 
ligion," he said, ''that teaches such humility must 
of necessity be true and from God." St. Francis de 
Sales also converted many heretics by his patient en- 
durance of insult. St. Bernard was one day speak- 
ing of a Religious who was looked upon as a saint. 
"I think that he is a holy person," said the saint, 



234 Humility of the Will, 

''but the best is still wanting to him — and that is per- 
secution and opprobrium/' 

Let us remember that persecution and humilia- 
tions are the treasures of the saints. St. Paul 
writes : ''All that will live godly in Christ Jesus 
shall suffer persecution'' (2 Tim. iii. 12). Our 
Saviour Himself declares : 'Tf they have perse- 
cuted Me, they will also persecute you" (John xv. 
20). Smarting under persecution, some one may 
cry out: 'T do my duty, I injure no one, I try 
to be good to all ; why do they treat me so?" O be- 
loved soul, remember that all the saints bore perse- 
cution, that Jesus Christ, the Leader of all the saints, 
deigned to suffer persecution. And you can not en- 
dure it? ''Can God bestow upon us a greater 
grace," says St. Teresa, "than to allow us to 
be treated in the same manner as His well-beloved 
Son?" If you are despised and, as it were» 
trodden under foot, rejoice and thank your di- 
vine Spouse for admitting you to share the 
treatment that He received here on earth. At 
prayer imagine all kinds of contempt, contradiction^ 
and persecution that could possibly happen to you ; 
then, when you have thoroughly weighed them, of- 
fer yourself to God to suffer all for the love of 
Jesus. In this way you will more readily accept 
them, with the help of God, should they really come 
upon you. 

The Saints received contempt not only with meek- 
ness and resignation but also with joy and satisfac- 
tion. The venerable Father Louis da Ponte could 
not in the beginning comprehend how one could re- 
joice at being contemned. But when he had arrived 
at greater perfection, he imderstood it very well 
from his own experience. We can not, indeed, at- 
tain such a state of detachment from self by our 



Humility of the Will. 235 

own strength, but we can do so by the grace of 
God, as the Apostle tells us : ''They, indeed, went 
from the presence of the council rejoicing that they 
w^ere accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the 
name of Jesus" (Acts v. 41). Many suffer contempt^ 
but few rejoice in it. On a certain occasion St. Ig- 
natius of Loyola appeared to St. Magdalene of Paz- 
7A and said : ''True humility consists in rejoicing in 
all that can serve to humble us." Worldlings do not 
rejoice so much over honors as the saints do over 
contempt and contumely. When the holy Francis- 
can, Brother Juniper, was insulted in any way, he 
used to hold up his habit as if he were gatherings 
precious stones in it. When St. Francis Regis was 
ridiculed by his brethren, he rejoiced, and tried to 
prolong the laugh against him. The saints were con- 
tent and even desired to be forgotten and despised 
by men. They longed to suffer and to be contemned 
for Jesus Christ. Our Saviour with a crown of 
thorns upon His head and a heavy cross upon His 
shoulder once appeared to St. John of the Cross and 
said to him: ''John, what do you ask of Me? 
What do you desire?" The saint answered: "Lord, 
to suffer and to be despised for Thee," as if he would 
say : "Lord, my Saviour, if I see Thee through Thy 
love for me enduring such pain and ignominy, what 
else could I ask of Thee but suffering and con- 
tempt?" St. Thomas Aquinas says : "When you 
see one who desires honors and flees abjection, and 
who when meeting persecution or contempt is 
troubled and complains, be assured that even should 
he w^ork miracles, he is far from perfection ; his vir- 
tue is v/ithout foundation." The Angelic Doctor 
abhorred honors and praise. Clement IV. offered 
him the Archbishopric of Naples. He not only de- 
clined the honor, but obtained the favor from the 



236 Humility of the Will. 

same Pontiff that he would never offer him any other 
dignity. It was through pure obedience that he took 
the degree of Doctor. He rejoiced when in college 
that one, whose master he might have been, but who 
had been given to him as a teacher, called him the 
diiinb ox, attributing his silence to ignorance and 
want of talent. One day, while reading publicly 
during dinner, he was ordered to pronounce a word 
in a different manner. He repeated the word im- 
mediately as he was told, though he was sure it was 
wrong. "It matters little," said he afterward to one 
of his companions, "to make a syllable long or short; 
but it is of extreme importance to be humble and 
obedient.*' St. Angela of Foligno once received this 
instruction from Our Lord : ''The surest proof that 
the light or inspiration a soul receives comes from 
God, is the great desire she has to suffer humilia- 
tions for the love of Jesus." In His Sermon on the 
Mount Our Blessed Saviour teaches us not to be 
troubled at contempt and persecution, but, on the 
contrary, to exult in the thought of the reward laid 
np for us in heaven on that account : ''Blessed are ye 
when they shall revile you and persecute you, and 
speak all that is evil against you untruly for My 
sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very 
great in heaven" (Matt. v. 11). 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
Ipurtti^ ot IFntentton, 

'T^ URiTY of intention consists in doing all things 
'-*— with the sole desire of pleasing God. The 
intention and the end give to every work its real 
value, as the Holy Scriptures say: 'The light of 
thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole 
body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil, thy 
whole body shall be darksome" (Matt. vi. 22). By 
the eye, the saints understand the intention with 
Vvhich an act is performed, and by the body, the ac- 
tion that follows the intention, as the body follows 
the eyes that lead it. The divine Saviour intimates 
by these words that the intention gives light and 
luster to the action, hence the action will be good 
or bad according as the intention is good or bad. 
'Tf the root be holy, so are the branches" (Rom. xi. 
16). As the root, so the tree, so the fruit. What 
can be expected from a decayed root and a sapless 
trunk but tasteless, worm-eaten fruit? But if the 
root is sound the whole tree will be beautiful, the 
fruit good. So the goodness and perfection of our 
works depend on purity of intention, which is, as 
it were, the root. The purer and more direct the 
intention, the better, the more perfect the action. 

Men value actions according to their outw^ard ap- 
pearance, but God regards the intention with which 
they are performed. Holy Scripture assures us that 
Almighty God, unlike men, looks at the heart, that 
is, at the intention with which we act. "Man seeth 
those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the 
heart" (i Kings xvi. 7). Is there anything more 



238 Purity of Intention. 

sublime than the death of a martyr who sacrifices 
his hfe for the true faith ? But St. Paul says : ''If 
I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not 
charity, it profiteth me nothing" (i Cor. xiii. 3). 
To give one's body to the flames, and not to do it for 
God, would be of no use. The Holy Fathers say 
not the pain, not the death, makes the martyr, but the 
cause, the reason of their suffering. The Royal 
Prophet says : 'T will offer up to Thee holocausts 
full of marrow" (Ps. Ixv. 15). The sacrifices of 
some are without marrow, that is, without the in- 
tention of pleasing God alone. Such sacrifices He 
does not accept. St. Magdalene of Pazzi says that 
God rewards our works according to the measure of 
their purity, or in proportion to the purity of our in- 
tention. It is said of the spouse in the Canticles : 
''Who is she that goeth up by the desert as a pillar 
of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frank- 
incense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?" 
(Cant. iii. 6.) By myrrh is understood mortifica- 
tion, by incense, prayer, by spices, all the other vir- 
tues. The spouse is praised for them all, for, like 
a cloud of sweet-smelling incense, her daily actions 
ascend straight to God, because her only intention 
in all that she does is to please her divine Bride- 
groom. 

St. Magdalene of Pazzi often said to her nuns : 
"In all that you do, never seek self." Do you know 
what you do, asks the Prophet Aggeus, when you 
seek self in your actions? You imitate him who 
puts the money received for his labor into a bag 
full of holes : ''He that hath earned wages, put 
them into a bag with holes" (Aggeus i. 6) : that is, 
he loses the fruit of his toil. Our Lord warns us : 
'Take heed that you do not your justice before men, 
to be seen by them" (Matt. vi. i), for if you do, I 



Purity of Intention. 239 

shall, when you ask for your recompense, say to 
you : "You have received your reward. You have 
gained the praise that you sought. What more can 
you desire of Me?'' 

Let us now consider the signs by which it may be 
known whether our works are done for God or for 
self. The first sign is not being chagrined when 
our undertakings do not turn out well. Peace of 
soul attends every act done with a pure intention, 
that is, for God alone. We may know that we work 
for God if, when we find that He permits our fail- 
ure, we at once submit tranquilly to His holy will. 
He will not consider the success of our w^ork, but 
only w^hether we have sought to please Him. Another 
sign of a good intention is, that we rejoice as much 
over the good done by others as if it were done by 
ourselves. He who seeks only the glory of God 
cares not by whom it is promoted. But if we do 
not rejoice at the good effected by our neighbor, if 
there arises in our heart a feeling of uneasiness or 
envy, it is an incontestable sign that we do not 
purely seek God's honor. St. James expressly says : 
"If you have bitter zeal, and there be contentions in 
your hearts . . . this is not wisdom, descending 
from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish" (James 
iii. 14). Such zeal, such anxiety, are not for the 
glory of God, but only for one's own glory, for 
honor, and esteem. 

It is, also, a sign that one labors for God alone if 
he has no preference for this or that office or em- 
ployment, but contents himself with what obedience 
imposes. The source of this indifference and equa- 
nimity of soul is found in the resolution to see only 
the will of God in all things. If you do not under- 
take a fatiguing office with as much readiness as an 
honorable and less laborious one, you plainly show 



240 Purity of Intention. 

that self, and not God, is in view. ''If God were al- 
ways the pure end of our desires, we would not so 
easily become confused by the resistance of our 
senses," says Thomas a Kempis. 

A fourth sign is whether you wish your Superiors 
to notice what you do, to thank you for the 
trouble you take in the discharge of your duties. 
Do you desire to be praised by them or to re- 
ceive proofs of their satisfaction? Do you become 
disheartened if you do not get them ? If this is the 
case, take it as a sure sign that the love of God is 
not the principle of your actions, and that human 
motives tmderlie them. Did you act purely for God's 
sake, you would care nothing for such praise. On 
the contrary, convinced that your Superiors express 
satisfaction through compassion for your imperfec- 
tion and weakness, you would be ashamed of your- 
self, you would bemoan yourself, saying : ''Ah ! I 
am so weak that my Superiors have to treat me in 
this indulgent manner. Am I, indeed, so ignorant, 
so little advanced in virtue, that I have to be urged 
on by such means?'' 

In The Spiritual Meadow it is related of Abbot 
John the Younger, of Thebes, a scholar of wSt. 
Amon, that for twelve years he served an old sick 
Father. During all that time he performed his duty 
carefully and charitably, but never received one kind 
word from the invalid. He was, on the contrary, 
treated very harshly. When the old Father lay at 
the point of death, he called the young man who 
had served him so long and with so much patience 
and humility, pressed his hand, and said to him : 
"May God bless and protect you!" Then, turning 
to the hermits, who were present, he commended 
him. to them, saying: "Love him; for he is worthy 
of vour esteem and affection. For twelve years he 



Purity of Intention. 241 

has served me in my sickness. Never did he re- 
ceive from my lips a friendly word, and yet never 
has he ceased to serve me with love and fidelity." 

If, on hearing yourself praised, vainglorious 
thoughts arise, bidding you rejoice in the commen- 
dation, do not be troubled ; simply give them no heed. 
Do as Father Avila recommends — say to them : 
'*You come too late ; all is already consecrated 
to God." If you undertake some good work, or if 
you observe your Rule and perform your spiritual 
exercises very conscientiously, be not restrained by 
fear of praise on account of the good example you 
give, but persevere in such acts, doing them solely 
for the love of God. God is pleased that others 
should behold our good actions that they may be 
encouraged to imitate and glorify Him in all 
their works : ''Let your light shine before men, 
that they may see your good works, and glorify 
your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. v. 16). All 
depends on our acting with a good intention. If 
vainglory tries to insinuate itself, let us say with 
St. Bernard, who w^as tempted in this way once 
when he was preaching : ''I did not begin for you, 
and I shall not stop for you." We must, indeed, be 
deaf to the praise of men, but we must not omit 
our good works through fear of vainglory. St. 
Teresa says : "If we seek to please God alone. He 
will supply us with the strength to vanquish vain- 
glory." 

The more we forget self in the good that we 
do, the more God loves us and the more grace 
He bestows upon us. He Himself revealed this to 
St. Catharine of Sienna : ''My daughter, think of Me, 
and I will think of thee." Think only of pleasing 
Me, He meant to say, and I shall take care that you 
increase in virtue, that you gain the victory over 



242 Purity of Intention. 

your enemies, that you attain perfection in this Hfe 
and the joy of the blessed in the other. The spouse 
in the Canticles says : ''I to my Beloved, and His 
turning is toward me" (Cant. vii. lo). 

Would that all Religious were animated by the 
spirit of that woman whom a certain Dominican 
Father in the retinue of St. Louis, king of France, 
happened to meet in the Holy Land. In one hand 
she carried a pail of water; in the other, a lighted 
torch. When asked what she meant by it, she an- 
swered: 'This water is to extinguish the fires of 
hell, and this torch is to burn up heaven, that hence- 
forth neither the fear of the one nor the hope of the 
other may lead men to serve God, but that they may 
do all things simply for love of Him, to please Him 
alone." This is truly to imitate the blessed in 
heaven, who seek naught but the good pleasure of 
God. As St. Thomas says, they rejoice more over 
the felicity of God than over their own happiness. 
This is that ''entering into the joy of the Lord," 
the fulfilment of those blessed words which will be 
addressed to every soul on its entrance into heaven : 
"Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matt. xxv. 
21 ). St. Bernard says that a soul acts perfectly 
only when she forgets self entirely, and thinks of 
pleasing God alone in everything she does. It was 
in this spirit that he prayed : "Lord, grant that I 
may love Thee not for mvself, but only to please 
Thee, and to fulfil Thy most holy will!" Well 
known is St. Francis Xavier's hymn of love : 
"O DetiS, Ego amo Te'\' 

My God, I love Thee, not because 

I hope for Heav'n thereby: 
Nor because they, who love Thee not, 

Must burn eternally. 



Purity of Intention. 243 

''Souls that love God/' says St. Francis de Sales, 
''purify and adorn themselves not to be beautiful, 
but only to please their divine Spouse. The con- 
fidence which they place in the goodness of their 
Beloved frees them from all unrest and solicitude 
as to whether they are beautiful enough, and it 
makes them satisfied with a sincere and constant 
effort to please Him." Let us imitate the divine 
Saviour, when He exclaimed: ''Father, into Thy 
hands I commend My spirit" (Luke xxiii. 46). 
After that there remains but to die the death 
of love. Let us die to self that Jesus alone may live 
in us. Let us pray with St. Francis- of Assisi : 
'*0 Jesus, grant that I may die to self for love of 
Thee, who hast vouchsafed to die for love of Me." 
If we strive simply to do the will of God, if we aim 
only at His good pleasure, we shall not fail in any 
work. We can not in any way give more honor to 
God than by doing His will. This was what our 
divine Saviour always did. He constantly fulfilled 
the will of His eternal Father, as He Himself fre- 
quently testified : "I seek not My own will, but the 
will of Him that sent Me" (John v. 30). And again : 
"I do always the things that please Him" (John viii. 
29). Justlv, therefore, may it be said of Jesus: 
•'He hath done alf things w^ell" (Mark vii. 37). "K 
we act in the same way," says St. Chrysostom, "and 
succeed in pleasing our good God, what more can 
we ask ?" God does not demand great things of His 
creatures, but only that the little they can do be of- 
fered to Him with a pure intention. If you are 
closely occupied with the duties of your state of life, 
you must not be troubled at not being able to spend 
much time in prayer. When Father Balthazar Al- 
varez, being very much engaged one day, was 
longing to give himself up to prayer, he heard an in- 



244 Purity of Intention. 

terior voice saying to him : ''If thou canst not stay 
near Me, let it suffice that I make use of thee." 

It is recorded of one of the Fathers of the desert, 
that before every action he was wont to pause an 
instant. When asked the reason, he answered : 
"Every action not performed with a good intention 
is vahieless. When an archer shoots at a target, he 
pauses to take aim before he discharges his arrow. 
So, at the beginning of my work, I direct my inten- 
tion to God, who ought to be the only end of all 
we do. It is for this that I pause a little before all 
my actions." We must do the same. As the archer, 
in taking aim at the center of the target, closes the 
left and opens the right eye, that his gaze, being 
concentrated, may not stray to other objects, so we, 
too, must close the left eye, that is, have no worldly 
intention, and open the right to look only on God. 
In this way we shall not miss the mark, we shall 
strike the Heart of God. ''Thou hast wounded My 
heart. My sister. My spouse : thou hast wounded My 
heart with one of thine eyes" (Cant. iv. 9). 

On rising in the morning, we ought to offer to 
God all our thoughts, words, and actions of the day, 
begging His grace that we may do all for His 
greater honor and glory. Then, if vainglory 
should insinuate itself, we may truthfully say : "You 
have come too late. The work has been given to 
another." But this first offering must not be the 
only one that we make. We must, as much as possi- 
ble, accustom ourselves to begin no work until we 
have actually referred it to the glory of God. As a 
mason applies the rule and the square to every stone 
that he puts in place, so at each of our actions we 
should apply the rule of the divine will, and offer 
it for the glory of God. And as a skilful workman 
is not satisfied with applying the rule only once, but 



Purity of Intention. 245 

frequently makes use of the same test, until the 
stone lies perfectly square, so we must not think it 
sufficient to offer an action to God only in the be- 
ginning, but during its whole continuance we should 
make frequent little aspirations such as : ''Lord, I do 
this for Thy sake, because Thou dost command it, 
because Thou dost desire it!'' 

The masters of the spiritual Hfe make use of the 
following very apt comparison to explain how our 
works may be performed in the most perfect man- 
ner. As the mathematician, they say, looks only at 
the size and shape of bodies, regardless of the mat- 
ter of which they are composed, for that is to him a 
question of indifference, so must a true servant of 
God, in all he does, regard only the divine will. Of 
the matter he must take no notice — that is, he must 
look neither at the office nor occupation assigned 
him. Perfection does not consist in that, but only 
in accomplishing the will of God, and seeking only 
His glory in all that we do. This is the doctrine of 
the great St. Basil, and it is founded on that of the 
Apostle. The life and actions of a Christian have 
only one aim, namely, the honor of God ; for 
''whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you 
do, do all to the glory of God" (i Cor. x. 31). 

One day the divine Saviour, tired and exhausted, 
was sitting at Jacob's well and conversing with a 
Samaritan woman, who had come to draw water. 
His disciples had in the meantime gone to the 
town to buy food. On their return they urged 
the Lord to refresh His strength by taking 
some of the viands they had procured. But He re- 
plied : 'T have meat to eat which you know not" 
(John iv. 32). Then the disciples said to one an- 
other: "Hath any man brought Him to eat?" Jesus 
said to them: "My meat is to do the will of Him 



246 Purity of Intention. 

that sent me" (ibid.). That must be our food in all 
our actions, the satisfaction of doing the will of God, 
in the work assigned to us. The food of the portress 
and the infirmarian is not different from that of the 
Superior and the mistress of novices. We must be 
as contented in our lowly office, whatever it may be, 
as they are supposed to be in theirs. The fulfilling 
of the divine wdll ought to be the principle of all our 
actions ; therefore, we must not think of the great- 
ness nor the insignificance of our work, but only of 
fulfilling the will of God. We must attend only 
to what God demands of us. Let the following 
ejaculation be constantly in our heart and on 
our lips: "O Lord, I do this for Thee, for Thy 
honor, and because Thou dost will it !'' By the con- 
tinued practice of this exercise, we shall at last 
perform all our actions as the Apostle enjoins : 
"With a good will serving, as to the Lord, and not 
to men" (Eph. vi. 7). Purity of intention is the 
true alchemy which changes the basest metals into 
the finest gold. However insignificant our work 
may be in itself, it will, by being performed with 
the intention of doing the will of God, become of 
the highest value. Since this can be done so easily 
let us try to transmute everything we do into pure 
gold — the gold of merit, the effect of divine charity. 
Whoever performs his actions for God will Ha^c 
full days, according to the expression of David : 
"And full days shall be found in them'' (Ps. Ixxii. 
10). By full days are understood those that are en- 
tirely consecrated to the good pleasure of God. All 
other days are empty, and it is to them that the 
Psalmist refers when he says that sinners die in the 
midst of their days. Yes, they do not reach ev^en the 
midst of them, because they have allowed their years 
to pass uselessly. "Bloody and deceitful men shall 



Purity of Intention. 247 

not live out half their days" (Ps. liv. 24). On the 
same principle the Holy Scripture calls the sinner a 
child of a hundred years because he lives not like 
a man, but like a child : "For the child shall die a 
hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred 
years old shall be accursed" (Is. Ixv. 20). The 
wicked will be overtaken by death and snatched 
away unprepared, hence, their lamentations w^hen 
death appears, their complaints that it comes too 
soon, their supplications for delay. Ah! then they 
want time to do penance. The same may be said of 
the tepid and negligent Religious. The days of 
their religious life are very few, long though they 
may have worn the habit. 

The Franciscan annals tell us of an old monk 
who, to the question how long he had been in the 
Order, answered: "Not a day, perhaps!" As his 
interrogator expressed astonishment at so incom- 
prehensible an answer, the mxonk replied : "I have, 
indeed, worn the habit five and sixty years, but, 
computing time by my works, I do not know how 
long T have really been a Religious." God grant 
that no Religious will have to say of himself in truth 
what that good old monk said in his humility ! It 
matters little that a soul has been a long time in a 
Religious Order, that she has grown old in it. All 
consists in having lived well in it. What profit to 
count many years since the day of conversion if no 
virtues have been acquired? A few days of a pure 
and holy life are worth more than many years of a 
tepid and negligent one. Before God, not the days 
of life, but the days of a good life will be numbered ; 
not the years that have been spent in Religion, but 
those that have been spent as a good Religious. 
Holy Scripture afifords us a striking example of this 
in the first baok of Kings, when it speaks of Saul : 



248 Purity of Intention. 

''Saul was a child of one year when he began to 
reign, and he reigned two years over Israel" 
i I Kings xiii. i ) . And yet we know that he reigned 
forty years, as St. Paul expressly tells us in the 
Acts of the Apostles : "And after that they desired 
a king: and God gave them Saul, the son of Cis, a 
man of the tribe of Benjamin, forty years'' (Acts 
xiii. 21). Why, then, does the Book of Kings make 
mention of only two years ? Because in the records 
of God only those years are counted that are lived 
well. The whole of Saul's reign was reckoned in 
Scripture but two years, because it was only during 
that short time that he reigned as a just and true 
king. The holy Gospel tells us that they who went 
last into the vineyard and worked therein but one 
hour received exactly the same recompense as they 
who had labored the whole day. And who can say 
that it was unjust, since the former by their dili- 
gence had in a short time earned as much as the lat- 
ter in their long day. Let us pause here and reckon 
up our years in Religion. 

Eusebius of Emesa treated this subject very beau- 
tifully when he said : ''We are accustomed to reckon 
our present life by years and periods. But do not 
be deceived, whoever 3^ou are, by the number of 
days you may have spent here since you left the 
world. Count those only on which you have denied 
yourself, on which you have resisted evil desires, 
on which you have taken up your cross and followed 
Christ, which you have spent without trespassing 
any rule. Reckon only those that were illumined by 
the light of religious simplicity, purity, and holy 
meditation. . Of such days, if you can, form your 
years, and in that way measure the period of your 
whole life. Tremble lest you hear the reproof given 
to the Bishop of Sardes : 'And to the. angel of the 



Purity of Intention. 249 

church of Sardes write : . . . I know thy works, 
that thoii hast the name of being ahve, and thou art 
dead. Be watchful, for I find not thy works full be- 
fore my God' (Apoc. iii. I, 2). Think not that 
anything is hidden from the eyes of God. He be- 
holds in you what men do not discover. They think 
you living, and you are dead. You bear the name 
and the habit of a Religious ; you do not possess the 
character of a Religious. Your works are empty be- 
fore God — or rather they are full, but only of self. 
You seek only your ow^n comfort, your own honor 
and esteem. Begin at once to watch that your works 
may be full works, your days full days, that you 
may live a long life in a short time, and lay up merit 
before God." 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Zbc Wiccc6Bit>^ ot a Spiritual jFatber, or Director, 
auD ot ©bcDience to Dim. 

^r OME Religious are under the impression that 
J^-' they can dispense with a spiritual director. 
Having their Rules and Superiors, they deem these 
all-sufficient. In this they err. It is of the 
highest importance that they should have a spir- 
itual director, as well for their interior guidance as 
for their exterior. 'Tt is true," says St. Gregory, 
*'that some saints have been led directly by the 
Spirit of God, but such examples are much more to 
be admired than imitated, lest he who scorns to be 
the disciple of a man may become a teacher of er- 
ror.'' All virtue is found in the golden mean. As 
in the spiritual life, inertness is a vice, so is too great 
zeal harmful. It is the duty of the confessor to put 
both the one and the other in order and, therefore, 
his guidance is necessary. But should it happen 
that a soul can find no such director, God Himself 
takes the case in hand. Nevertheless, it is certain 
that the soul who refuses the guidance of God's ser- 
vant when she can have it acts presumptuously, and 
God will permit her to make many mistakes. Al- 
mighty God could, indeed, lead us Himself, but He 
wills, for the sake of holy humility, that we submit 
to His servants. 

Cassian tells us of a certain hermit who, dying of 
hunger in " the desert, refused the food charitably 
offered him, in the thought that God Himself would 
send him food miraculously. He died in his vain 
hope and obstinacy. But why, it may be asked, did 



The Necessity -of a Spiritual Father. 251 

God for so many years send bread by a raven to the 
hermit Paul, and yet neglect the need of that poor 
monk ? The reason is evident. St. Paul was utterly 
destitute of food, while the other would not accept 
what was offered him, therefore God abandoned 
him. What is here said of food for the body may 
equally be applied to the nourishment of the soul. 
He who despises the guidance of the wise does not 
deserve to be guided by God. Obey your confessor, 
or spiritual guide, and never deviate a finger's 
breadth from what he permits or forbids, however 
good your own contrary desires may seem to you. 
We read in the ancient Fathers of a youth who had 
made great progress in virtue. Against the advice 
of his spiritual director he determined to abandon 
community life, and become a hermit in the desert. 
But what happened ? After leading his new life for 
some time, he conceived the idea of visiting his rela- 
tives. He did so, and not only entirely forgot his 
solitude, but even gave himself up to sin. We find 
many similar examples in the writings of Cas- 
sian and St. John Climacus. Spiritual men, much 
given to prayer, even far advanced in years, were 
wofully misled by confiding in their own judgment, 
and fell into many follies and excesses by allowing 
it to guide and govern them. 

Obedience and submission of judgment will safe- 
guard you against excessive zeal and evil inspira- 
tions. If restrained in your inclination for penance 
and mortification, you will lose nothing by obeying 
your spiritual director. On the contrary you will 
increase your merit twofold, for you will have 
that of your good desire and that of holy obedience. 
The latter is often greater than the former, on ac- 
count of the self-denial practiced. This was made 
known to St. Bridget, who had an extraordinary 



252 The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 

love for penance. Her health being somewhat im- 
paired, her director forbade for a time some of her 
austerities. The saint obeyed, though not without 
regret, fearing that her spiritual life might suffer 
some loss in consequence. One day, while indulg- 
ing such thoughts, the Blessed Virgin appeared to 
her and said: ''See, my daughter! Suppose two 
men desire to fast on a certain day through devo- 
tion. One of them, being free, really does so ; but 
the other, living under obedience, does not, because 
he has been forbidden by his Superior. The latter 
receives a double recompense : one for his desire to 
fast, the other for his obedience.'' 

But suppose your director has guided you badly 
— indeed, you have been assured of it by other di- 
rectors. We reply: You can not easily go astray if 
you are obedient. If things have turned out badly, 
as you say, it is perhaps because you have been obe- 
dient in some points, and not in others. God is not 
bound to bless so faulty an obedience. You should 
leave yourself entirely to the guidance of your direc- 
tor, firmly resolved to obey him in all things. Then 
God will not permit you to wander in the wrong road. 
If your director fails in knowledge, God will supply 
for it. It is impossible for a soul earnestly sighing 
after perfection, a soul who trusts in God, to go 
astray if she steadfastly perseveres in obedience to 
the director He has given her. 

A great servant of God was accustomed to say : 
''Every confessor is alike to me, for every one ap- 
plies to the wounds of my soul the precious blood of 
Jesus Christ.'' A devout Religious once said to her 
fellow- Sisters : ''Be convinced that no confessor 
can render you holy if you are not resolved to mor- 
tify your own will and passions." 

Be verv candid with vour confessor and let him 



The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 253 

look deep into your heart, so that he may direct you 
aright and help you to advance in the way of per- 
fection. He will put himself to any trouble to help 
you, in return for the confidence you repose in him. 

Useless talk ought not to find an entrance into the 
sacred precincts of the confessional. To what end 
does it serve to talk so much of one's little aches, an- 
noyances, and disappointments ? If these details were 
omJtted, confession would occupy but one-half the 
time, and there would be a more earnest striving 
after perfection. Some regularly take about seven 
and a half minutes repeating the same old tale : 'T 
accuse myself of having little love for God, of not 
rightly fulfilling my duties, of not loving my neigh- 
bor as I should," and so on. Such accusations are 
to little purpose. They are pure loss of time. 

Guard against saying anything derogatory of the 
confessor. Such expressions are as harmful to 
yourself as to him. Religious should honor their 
spiritual guides as their greatest benefactors, but 
at the same time they should absolutely suppress any 
special liking for him. They should speak to him 
only of matters of conscience. ''The proper love for 
a confessor," says a certain saint, ''consists in com- 
mending him to God in prayer." St. Teresa gave 
the following advice to her Sisters : "After you have 
confessed your sins, received absolution, and lis- 
tened to the counsel given by the confessor for the 
good of your soul, leave the confessional at once, 
since it may easily happen that, by long conversa- 
tions, an inclination for the confessor takes posses- 
sion of the heart, which, if not actually bad, is not 
perfectly good." Business affairs, temporal con- 
cerns, family discussions, should be absolutely ex- 
cluded. As to gifts of any kind they ought to be 
utterly abolished. If once or twice a year some ac- 



254 The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 

knowledgment is given the confessor in the name of 
all, that ought to be quite sufficient. No word 
should ever pass between confessor and penitent ex- 
pressive of special liking on either side. 

It may be alleged that there is nothing to fear, 
since the confessor is a very holy man. Let us 
hearken to St. Thomas Aquinas : ''The more holy 
the persons for whom we feel special attachment, 
the more must we be on our guard, for the great re- 
gard we have for their sanctity wall inspire us all the 
more to love them. A spiritual friendship may 
easily degenerate into sensual affection." 

If a Religious has a true desire for greater per- 
fection, let her apply herself more earnestly to 
spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, the more de- 
vout reception of holy communion, the observance 
of the Rules and other regulations of the com- 
munity. 

In an article on the ordinary confessor of nuns,"^ 
Father McNicholas, O.P., says: "In the convents of 
Sisters the confessional should not be placed in their 
sacristy nor in any room of the house ; but in the 
church of said convent or monastery. If the Sisters 
have merely a private chapel, that is, a large room in 
the interior of the house, as are most of the Sisters' 
chapels in the United States, the confessional 
should be placed in the chapel proper. Sisters who 
do not wish to submit to this prescription may have 
their confessions interdicted. 

''Only one ordinary confessor is to be appointed 
for a community. This is a wise provision. Were 
there several regular confessors, it would mean 
various ideas of direction in the same community, 
thus causing comparisons to be made, giving rise to 
reports and theories and trifling difficulties which 
"^American Ecclesiastical Review, October, igo^. 



The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 255 

would tend to disturb the consciences of the Sisters, 
mihtate against the unity of the community and 
thereby interfere with the exercise of the Superior's 
authority. While uniformity of direction is to be 
desired, it is not to be overestimated. Were all ad- 
vanced in the way of perfection and superior to hu- 
man considerations, especially the personality of 
confessors, the Church would probably msist abso- 
lutely on one regular confessor. But she takes into 
account human weakness, and, guided by facts, she 
knows the difficulty so frequently experienced by 
.Sisters of making always a clear manifestation of 
conscience to the regular confessor. To obviate this 
difficulty she prudently does not appoint a second or 
third regular confessor who may come to the con- 
vent to hear confessions, but she institutes two other 
classes of confessors to whom the Sisters may have 
access, viz.j the special and the extraordinary confes- 
sor. The confessor should not concern himself 
about the temporal administration of the convent. 
He may of course give advice V\'hen asked. On the 
other hand, he should not allow the Superior to give 
him directions for the guidance of the Sisters in 
matters of confession. The confessor should re- 
ceive a stipend according to the custom of the coun- 
try or place. But other presents he should not 
accept." 

Let us add a few reflections on scruples. A 
scruple is but a vain fear of sinning, a consequence 
of false imaginations that have no reasonable foun- 
dation. Such scruples are often very useful in the 
beginning of conversion. They purify the soul, and 
at the same time make her careful to flee from real 
sins. They serve, also, to humble the soul, so that, 
no longer trusting her own judgment, she submits 
to the guidance of her spiritual director. St. Fran- 



256 The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 

cis de Sales says : ''The fear that scruples bring to 
those that have only lately abandoned sin, is an in- 
fallible sign of future purity of conscience." On the 
contrary, scruples are hurtful to those already 
striving after perfection, and who have for some 
time given themselves to God. ''To such souls," 
says St. Teresa, "scruples will be the occasion of 
folly, since they present to them all kinds of pre- 
posterous fancies, which put them into such a state 
that they can take not one step in the path of per- 
fection." St. Francis de Sales teaches the same when 
he says : "Labor with care at your perfection, but 
guard against uneasiness; for there is nothing that 
so hinders the soul in her advancement toward 
God." 

Some discrimination must, however, be observed 
with regard to anxiety of conscience. Many Re- 
ligious pride themselves on having an easy con- 
science. They are anything but scrupulous ; they are 
careless in their dealings with others, they give and 
take presents without troubling themselves about 
permission, they set little value on their Rules, de- 
claring that they are obsolete, and they give full 
freedom to eyes, ears, and tongue. They think little 
of mortification, and condemn those that aim at 
death to self. The low voice and downcast eye they 
brand as affectation and singularity ; and they read- 
ily associate with the lax and imperfect, finding 
pleasure in their vain satisfactions. Such souls 
must not pride themselves on their liberty of con- 
science. They are tepid, imperfect, undisciplined. 
Would to God that they had a timid, that is, a tender, 
delicate conscience, such as every good Christian 
should have. Let them be on their guard lest they 
be numbered among those of whom David says that 



The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 257 

they will one day be in hell with their wretched com- 
panions, whose bad example they followed like 
sheep. She who will not waste her time by gossip- 
ing in the parlor, who will not speak unnecessarily 
in the choir, who observes silence at the times and in 
the places marked for it, who scorns a falsehood, 
does not give signs of a scrupulous, but only of a 
tender conscience ; and this Almighty God demands 
of every Religious. 

The marks of a scrupulous conscience are as fol- 
low^s : First when, in confession, the penitent always 
fears a want of true contrition and firm resolution. 
Secondly, if the penitent, on vain and insufficient 
reasons, fears sin in everything he does ; as, for in- 
stance, when he imagines every bad thought or evil 
suggestion a voluntary transgression of God's holy 
law. Thirdly, if in his doubts he is changeable, 
looking upon the same action sometimes as allow- 
able, again as forbidden, and that wnth great fear 
and anxiety. Fourthly, disobedience to the confessor 
based on the pretext of being misunderstood. The 
scrupulous love to follow their own w^ll. 

It does not belong to the penitent, but to the con- 
fessor, to determine whether or not the former is 
suffering from scrupulosity; for all scrupulous per- 
sons declare their scruples no scruples, . but real 
doubts and sins. Were they to recognize them as 
scruples, they would make no account of them. 
They grope alone in the dark, not knowing the 
state of their conscience. The confessor, viewing 
things from an independent standpoint, knows it 
very well ; consequently, the penitent should follow 
his counsel. As Father Alvarez de Paz says, "he 
should mistrust himself, renounce the direction of 
his own conscience, and confide himself to better 



258 The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 

hands, as the sick man leaves to the physician all the 
vv^isdom, judgment, and foresight necessary for his 
case/' 

The devil is accustomed to harass souls walking 
the path of perfection by scruples and anxiety of 
conscience. As a result, in many cases the spiritual 
life becomes distasteful, tepidity follows, and from 
scruples they lapse into great sins. A scrupulous 
person must obey simply and blindly when the con- 
fessor commands something to be done or left un- 
done. Disobedience in such cases is sinful for two 
reasons : First, because the soul that disobeys does 
herself much harm, inasmuch as she renders herself 
unfit to advance in the spiritual life; and secondly, 
because she runs the risk of losing her health or 
her mind, or by a vicious life her soul itself. 

The teachers of the spiritual life give various 
remedies for scruples, but all may be summed up in 
this, the chief, yes, the only remedy, submission and 
blind obedience to the confessor united with entire 
distrust of self-judgment. To refuse assent to the 
directions of the confessor shows pride and a want 
of faith. Jesus Christ has declared that whoever 
hears His priests, hears Him, and he who despises 
His minister, despises Him : ''He that heareth you, 
heareth Me : and he that despiseth vou, despiseth 
Me" (Lukex. 16). 

Almighty God demands no account of what is 
done in obedience. St. Philip Neri inculcated this 
on his penitents when he said : ''He who would 
make progress in the way of perfection must submit 
unreservedly to a pious and learned confessor, and 
obey him as the representative of God. Whoever 
does so may be sure that he will not have to render 
an account to God of his actions.'' A blind man 
needs a faithful guide, and the scrupulous soul, in 



The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 259 

her state of darkness and perplexity, must follow 
the guide whom the Lord has given her; she must 
allow herself to be led by the hand of obedience. 

He who obeys can not err. It was in obedience 
that the saints found their security. St. Augustine 
gave his friend St. Paulinus, who had communi- 
cated to him some of his doubts, the following ad- 
vice : "In your doubts consult a pious casuist, and 
what the Lord makes known to you through him, 
communicate to me." We see by these words that 
St. Augustine held for certain that God would speak 
to St. Paulinus by the mouth of a spiritual guide, 
and thus make known to him His divine will. St. 
Antony tells us that a certain disciple of St. Bernard 
was so tormented by scruples that he was afraid to 
say holy Mass. In his distress he went to his saintly 
director for advice. The latter answered him in 
few words: ''Go, my son, and say holy Mass at my 
peril.'' The ReUgious obeyed, and from that mo- 
ment all his scruples vanished. 

Beloved soul, do not reply: ''Yes, if I had a St. 
Bernard for confessor, I, too, would obey blindly. 
I should love to do so. But my confessor is not a 
St. Bernard." No, he is not, perhaps, a St. Bernard, 
but for you he is more than St. Bernard. He 
is the representative of God. Hear what the learned 
Gerson replies to such an objection: "You err when 
you so speak. You have not intrusted yourself 
to the guidance of a human being because he 
is holy or learned, but because God Himself has 
appointed him your guide. You must not obey 
him as a man, but as God Himself. Then you 
may be sure that you will never go wrong." 
St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the beginning of his con- 
version, was so troubled by darkness and scruples 
that he could find no rest. But firmly confiding in 



26o The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 

the word of the Lord : ''He who hears you, hears 
Me/' he exclaimed, full of confidence : "Show me, O 
Lord, the way by which I should go ; I shall obey 
the guide whom Thou wilt give me ; I promise 
henceforth to follow him faithfully/' And so it 
happened that the saint, on account of his faithful 
obedience to his spiritual guide, was entirely freed 
from scruples, and became so excellent a master for 
the conduct of others. St. Teresa says : ''The soul 
must give herself up to the guidance of her confes- 
sor, firmly resolved to think no more of her own af- 
fairs, but to rely on the words of the Lord, 'He that 
hears you, hears Me.' " Should the confessor hap- 
pen to err, the penitent does not err in obeying. Her 
obedience is always secure. There is, moreover, no 
need to question the learning of the confessor. It 
should be enough for the penitent to know that he 
has been approved by his Bishop. He holds, there- 
fore, the place of God, and the penitent can not err 
in obeying his injunctions. 

The penitent should, also, obey without further 
reflection on a case discussed with her confessor 
after it has been settled by him. The more a scrupu- 
lous soul reflects on her trouble, the more perplexed 
will she become. She must be satisfied to walk in 
darkness, keeping St. Francis de Sales' beautiful 
words in her mind : "It is sufficient that the confes- 
sor assures us that we are in a good way, even if we 
do not recognize it." And this other : "It is best to 
walk blindly under the protection of God's provi- 
dence through the dark and devious windings of this 
life." A third maxim for the consolation of the soul 
is : "A truly obedient soul can never be lost." "We 
must, however," the saint continues, "do everything 
from love, and not through constraint. We must 
love obedience more than we fear disobedience." 



The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 261 

As we read in De Lehen's The Way of In- 
terior Peace: "Scrupulosity is not perfection, it is 
a failing. It is a weakness for which the soul, far 
from glorying, should humble herself before the 
Lord. To wade in conjectures, and to discover sin 
where sin does not exist, is a mental defect wholly 
irrational. Such a fault is as fatal as it is ridic- 
ulous, and is justly numbered among the greatest 
dangers to which a soul can be exposed. 'A nar- 
row, scrupulous conscience,' says Gerson, 'has of- 
ten worse consequences than one that is too broad ; 
for it is a way without an end, it wearies without 
leading to the desired term — eternal salvation ! Dis- 
couragement, and too often despair, are its result.' 

''The celebrated Archbishop of Cambray adds : 
'Woe to those trifling, self-entangled souls that are 
always in fear, whom fear leaves no time to love and 
make generous progress ! O my God, I know it is 
Thy will that the heart which loves Thee should be 
broad and free ! Therefore, I shall act with confi- 
dence, as the child playing in the arms of its mother. 
I shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall seek to make 
others rejoice. I shall enlarge my heart in the as- 
sembly of the children of God, and I shall strive to 
acquire the childlike sincerity, innocence, and joy of 
the Holy Spirit. Far from me, O my God, that 
miserable and over-solicitous knowledge which is 
ever consumed with self, ever holding the balance 
in hand to weigh every atom ! Such lack of simplic- 
ity in the soul's dealings with Thee is truly an out- 
rage against Thee. Such rigor imputed to Thee is 
unworthy of Thy paternal heart.' " 

We close this chapter, repeating: "Obey! Obey! 
and do not make God a tyrant!" God truly hates 
sin, but He can not hate a soul that heartily detests 
her sins, and that would rather die a thousand times 



262 The Necessity of a Spiritual Father. 

than again commit them. God is good; God loves 
you ; O how gentle He is toward a soul of good 
will ! It was this thought that made David ex- 
claim : ''How good is God to Israel, to them that are 
of a right heart!" (Ps. Ixxii. i.) And the Prophet 
Jeremias declares in the same strain : ''The Lord is 
good to the soul that seeketh Him" (Lam. iii. 25). 
Our. Lord once said to St. Margaret of Cortona : 
''Margaret, seekest thou Me? Know that I seek 
thee far more than thou seekest Me." Imagine God 
saying the same to you in proportion to your love 
for Him, your earnestness in seeking Him. Cast 
yourself into His arms as the Psalmist exhorts you 
to do ; abandon to Him all the care of your soul, and 
be convinced that He will protect you, and extricate 
you from all your troubles. "Cast thy care upon 
the Lord, and He shall sustain thee : He shall not 
suffer the just to weaver forever" (Ps. liv. 23). 
Obey, and banish every fear. Obey and become a 
saint. The way of obedience is the safe, short road 
to heaven.* 

*For other considerations on this important matter, see 
Addenda on page 909. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

tbe Duties ot IReliglous toward tbctr Superiors 
and Spiritual Directors. 

0n tje Kmportance ot Cantiot anti Smcetitj totoartr 

Superiors. 

^OrLL Religious are familiar with the Decree 
<vA-^ ''Queniadmodiim/' of December 17, 1890, 
regarding the manifestation of conscience. It for- 
bids Superiors (as we read in paragraph II), "from 
endeavoring directly or indirectly, by command, 
counsel, fear, threats, or blandishments, to induce 
their subjects to make to them any such manifesta- 
tion of conscience" — a thing referred to in the pre- 
am.ble as ''reserved exclusively to the Sacrament of 
Penance." 

''This, however, in nowise hinders subjects" (as 
we read in paragraph III) "from freely and of their 
own accord opening their hearts to their Superiors, 
for the purpose of obtaining from their prudence 
counsel and direction in doubts and perplexities, in 
order to aid them in acquiring virtues and advancing 
in perfection." 

Father de Langogne, O.M.Cap., commenting on 
this Decree says : "After, as before, the existence of 
this Decree, the Superior of the community has a 
mission and a duty to direct his subjects in regard 
to the exterior observance of the Rules and usages, 
and in regard to the employment given to each of 
them. He can, therefore, for this purpose, watch, 
inform himself, question, provide, and correct. In 
this regard the Decree has not changed an iota. On 



264 Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 

the other hand, the Superior ought not to question, 
but Hsten to his subject, who freely and sponta- 
neously desires to open his heart and make known 
his doubts and inquietudes with a view to his spiri- 
tual progress. The Superior, we say, ought to listen 
to his subjects who come to ask advice from him. In 
fact, the inferior is free to recur to his Superior or 
not. But the Superior is not, therefore, free to lis- 
ten or send him away. He is Superior, he is di- 
rector, to aid, to console and enlighten. A sys- 
tematic refusal on his part would be at once a seri- 
ous negligence in his office and a lack of charity.'' ^ 
The better a Superior knows a subject, by being 
permitted to look deeply into her heart, the more 
carefully and lovingly can she guide, console, and 
encourage her ; she can w^ard off many dangers and 
troubles from her soul by not placing her in such 
positions or giving her such charges as would ex- 
pose her. Knowing a Sister's inclinations, weak- 
nesses, and affections, she can better give her a 
mother's care ; she will then impose nothing that 
surpasses her strength ; she will apportion to her the 
duty suited to her ability ; she will help her to culti- 
vate self-control and sustain her in her failures. 
Contented and happy is the Religious who is per- 
fectly honest and candid with her Superior. The re- 
lations between them should be those of mother and 
child; then there would be mutual love, confidence, 
and helpfulness. To make another comparison, a 
Religious ought to approach her Superior as one 
goes to a true and faithful friend, to open one's 
heart, to unburden one's soul, to tell one's dangers 
and perplexities, to seek protection from one's own 
weaknesses, to find consolation and strength in 
the trials of life. A Superior can not act as a 
^Manifestation of Conscience, pp. 78. 79. 



Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 265 

friend toward a subject who is not candid and sin- 
cere ; she can not thoroughly sympathize with her, 
help her, counsel her, guide her. 

But a Superior should be a friend to her subjects. 
Was not Christ the friend of His disciples? Did 
He not say very plainly to them : ''Jam non dicam 
vos servos. . . . Vos aittem dixi amicosf '^I will 
not now call you servants. . . . But I have called 
you friends'' (John xv. 15). Was not Christ even 
the servant of His disciples? Did He not say to 
them at the Last Supper : ''You call Me Master and 
Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If then I, be- 
ing your Lord and Master, have w^ashed your feet, 
you also ought to wash one another's feet. The 
servant is not greater than his lord ; neither is the 
apostle greater than He that sent him" (John 
xiii. 13-16). 

Is not a Superior ''servits servoruin Dei,'' ''the 
servant of the servants of Christ"? Is not a Su- 
perior ''alter Christus/' ''another Christ" in relation 
to his subjects? 

Religious should recognize in the Superior the 
person of Christ. This does not mean that a Re- 
ligious is merely the consecrated slave of an absolute 
and irresistible dictator. No; it means, as St. Paul 
says : serving from the heart, as to the Lord and not 
to men. These are the express words of the great 
Apostle, writing to his converts, the Colossians : 
''Obey in all things your masters, not serving to the 
eye, as pleasing to men, but in simplicity of heart, 
fearing God. Whatsoever you do, do it from the 
heart as to the Lord, and not to men : knowing that 
you shall receive of the Lord the reward of in- 
heritance. Serve ye the Lord Christ" (Col. iii. 
22-24). 

A Superior who is truly Christlike, a servant to 



266 Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 

the servants of God, a self-sacrificing and unselfish 
friend to those whom the Lord has committed to her 
care, will be approached by her subjects at all times 
and in all circumstances with love, candor, sincerity, 
and confidence. Incalculably great is the good that 
follows when a Religious acts with candor and sin- 
cerity toward her Superior, and looks upon her as a 
faithful friend to whom she may go with simplicity 
of heart and perfect trust. The Wise Man declares : 
''A faithful friend is the medicine of life and im- 
mortality" (Ecclus. vi. i6). No remedy is so quick 
to heal the wounds of the body as is a faithful friend 
to console in trouble, to counsel in doubt, to rejoice 
in success, to compassionate in misfortune. ''A 
faithful friend is a strong defence : and he that hath 
found him, hath found a treasure. Nothing can be 
compared to a faithful friend, and no weight of gold 
and silver is able to countervail the goodness of his 
fidelity" (ibid. 14, 15). Blessed indeed is the Re- 
ligious who possesses such a friend in her Superior. 
Such a Superior has the heart of a mother who truly 
compassionates her children. Confidently have re- 
course to her, according to the advice given us by 
the Holy Ghost : ''And if thou see a man of under- 
standing, go to him early in the morning, and let thy 
foot wear the steps of his doors" (ibid. 36). It is 
a relief, a consolation, to tell everything to the phy- 
sician ; and so, also, to the Religious, is it a solace 
and alleviation to share her interior trials and deso- 
lation with the one whom God has provided for that 
special purpose. 

One of the best means for driving sadness from 
the heart is to confide the cause of it to another. 
The ancient Fathers recommended this remedy. As 
long as men shut up within themselves the bur- 
den of temptation and trial, they live in sad- 



Duties of Religious tozvard their Superiors. 267 

ness and perplexity, in desolation and discour- 
agement. But when the burden has been shared by 
another, the heart grows light, and heavenly peace 
returns. St. Dorotheus says, that by revealing his 
interior sufferings to his spiritual Father, he gained 
such peace and joy of heart that he began to fear 
that all was not well with him. He was troubled 
when he recalled the words of the Apostle : 
* 'Through many tribulations we must enter into 
the kingdom of God" (Acts xiv. 21), and he felt 
doubtful as to whether he was really on the road to 
heaven. He consulted his master, the Abbot John, 
who told him not to fear, for he was now enjoying 
that joy and peace promised to those who deal 
openly with their spiritual directors. Act with sim- 
plicity toward your Superiors, for there is question 
not of temporal interests, which are secondary, but 
of vour sanctification and eternal salvation. It be- 
hooves all Religious, whether Superiors or subjects, 
to cultivate the spirit of Christ. When subjects talk 
of rights tow^ard Superiors, they must at the same 
time speak of obligations ; for both go together. 

It is the obligation of a Religious to follow Christ, 
to be moved by His spirit, to be, like Him, meek and 
humble of heart, to be poor in spirit, to be detached 
from creatures, to avoid .particular friendships, 
above all to be obedient, ay, obedient even unto the 
death of the cross, to obey, with a good heart 
and cheerfully, even a Superior who is not 
gentle and amiable, solely and simply for the 
love of God, not through inclination, esteem, or 
natural affection. As regards obedience under the 
yoke of one who is severe and commands in a 
haughty manner, there may be much suffering, but 
there is then also much merit. It is then that the 
virtue of holy obedience shines forth in all its 



268 Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 

glory. "Where there is less of the creature there 
is more of the Creator," says St. Jane Frances de 
Chantal. A fervent Religious, one who is inflamed 
with the love of God and eager to advance in holi- 
ness, sees in each command, nay, in the slightest 
wish of her Superior, a step by which she can mount 
higher toward the summit of perfection. After the 
example of her divine Spouse, whose meat it was to 
do the will of His heavenly Father, she offers her- 
self with joy as a living holocaust to God, as a vic- 
tim of perpetual sacrifice, crucified every moment of 
her life on the cross of obedience. Having fol- 
lowed Jesus crucified, she shall hereafter follow 
Him triumphant. This is her hope ; this is her con- 
solation. "Our seed has fallen in submission," says 
St. Cyril ; ''it will rise in glory." 

In the little book, General Principles of the Re- 
'ligious Life (Meer-Verheyen), w^e find the follow- 
ing admirable reflections and admonitions on the 
conduct of Religious toward their Superiors : 

I. When the Superior has been elected, do not re- 
gard him as one subject to imperfections, but as 
God's representative. God intends to supply the de- 
fects of those whom He appoints in His stead, and 
He will reward all Religious who honor Him in 
their Superiors as if the reverence they show their 
Superiors had been directly shown to His Godhead. 
On the other hand, He will visit with severity those 
who fail in reverence to Superiors, and will regard 
offences thus committed as if they directly con- 
cerned His majesty. All history, ancient and mod- 
ern, proves that this is God's uniform way of 
dealing. ''The disrespect shown to a country's 
representative is referred to the commonwealth he 
represents, and the law stamps the act as high 
treason." 



Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 269 

2. Always be prompt and cheerful in obeying 
your Superior. Do not obey him because of his 
wisdom and prudence — this is the obedience of hu- 
man policy, which in a Religious is disgraceful ; not 
because of family prestige — this is the obedience of 
a low, servile instinct, whose highest aim is to flat- 
ter ; not because he has the power to force you — 
this is the abject obedience of a slave, who fears 
the lash; nor yet because he humors you and im- 
poses agreeable tasks — this is the obedience of a 
capricious child, that deserves a frequent switching. 
No, obey your Superior simply because he holds the 
place of Him to whom you have made the sacrifice 
of vour will. This is true monastic obedience, and 
the only obedience on the part of a Religious that 
meets with God's approval. The truly obedient 
have their eyes fixed only on God. 

3. Have great confidence in your Superior. Let 
your relations with him be cordial and your deal- 
ings sincere. In your common necessities, there- 
fore, go to your Superior with as much confidence 
as a child goes to its parent; look upon everything 
he orders as well done, though it run counter to 
your feelings, unless you plainly recognize it to be 
a sin. To live thus is to live the life of a true Re- 
ligious, whose way to heaven is straight. That rule 
of life is unerring for the truth of which God gives 
the pledge of His infallible word. 

4. Take it in good part if your Superior makes 
you aware of your shortcomings ; and that he may 
admonish you the more readily, beg him earnestly 
to do so, and love him most who does you this favor 
most freely. You would certainly have more 
affection for a parent who could not bear to 
see the least speck on you without making you 
aware of it, than for one who neglects to draw 



270 Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 

your attention to the filthy stains with which 
you are covered. A ReHgious who takes kindly 
to correction will soon be perfect; but he that 
hates it will never get out of the ruts of his evil 
habits. Take care not to complain of your Su- 
periors, and do not listen to those who are given to 
grumbling about them. To grumble would be a sad 
misfortune. Had Eve turned a deaf ear to the 
tempter's wily speech when in her presence he criti- 
cized God's command not to eat of the forbidden 
fruit, she would have had less to suffer, and not 
have plunged us into the danger of losing our soul. 
It is God's wish that you should try to please 
your Superior more than others, mindful of Him 
whose place he holds; but God expressly forbids 
you to flatter him, studiously to endear yourself, 
with a view to be welcome in his company, and to 
insinuate yourself into his good graces by fawning, 
informing, or uncharitable tale-bearing. What a 
disgrace it is to meet certain persons in the monas- 
tery who make it their business to court the favor of 
their Superior, thrusting themselves into his pres- 
ence, prying into his leanings, to satisfy them in 
everything, thus to obtain the more easily what they 
are after ! Alas, that sordid egotism can not content 
itself with its myriads of slaves out in the world, 
but must recruit its selfish horde in monasteries, 
where the freedom of the children of God alone 
should hold empire ! 

5. Hold in grateful remembrance all that have 
once been your Superiors, and, though they are no 
longer in office, retain a special veneration for them. 
But you must not let it interfere with the confidence 
you owe your present Superior, through whose 
means God now confers His grace on you, as before 
He bestowed it through another. If you observe 



Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 271 

another course of action and allow yourself to be di- 
rected by those no longer in office, you adopt a 
course that will divide you against yourself, bring 
on a thousand complications, and ruin the Order. 
A two-headed body is a short-Hved nondescript. 

6. If with God's permission you happen on a Su- 
perior who, from caprice, suspicion, or false report, 
makes it a point to humble you on every occasion^ 
do not fail on that account to show him the respect 
due to his office. Think of Him for whose love you 
accepted the yoke of obedience. Be your aversion 
what it may, overcome it bravely, calling to mind the 
terrible sufferings of Jesus Christ, when He saw 
Himself so shamefully maltreated by the Jews, for- 
saken by His apostles, condemned to death, and so 
utterly abandoned by His Father; and do not give 
way to the slightest misgiving as to God's powerful 
aid. *'You are they who have continued with Me in 
My temptations ; and I dispose to you, as My Father 
hath disposed to Me, a kingdom" (Luke xxii. 28). 

7. Flave compassion on Superiors who, on the 
one hand, have to assist their subjects all they can, 
and, on the other, have to give an account to God 
for their perfection. Pray for them, that God may 
give them the strength and prudence necessary to 
fulfil their arduous duties well, and do not make 
their responsible position more burdensome by 
heaping upon it the additional dead weight of your 
irregularities and evil propensities. It is a cold and 
cruel heart that can bear to see a parent bending un- 
der a heavy burden, dragging himself along wearily, 
with groans and tottering steps, without moving 
even a finger to relieve the crushing strain. 

8. God's best gift to an Order is good Superiors. 
Since the welfare of an Order depends chiefly on the 
Superiors, be careful, when there is question of elec- 



2/2 Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 

tion, that you do not be influenced by personal mo- 
tives or the suggestions of weak human nature. On 
the contrary, invoke the Holy Ghost that He may 
enlighten you, implore the intercession of the Blessed 
Virgin, of the founder of your Order, of the guard- 
ian angel of your monastery, of all its former mem- 
bers who are now in heaven, that you may choose 
the one who is fitted to promote the sanctification of 
souls in 3^our community. ''The good shepherd giv- 
eth his life for his sheep'' (John x. it). 

9. As to the qualities which should guide you in 
the choice of a Superior, give your vote, ist. To the 
one who is most humble, and least desires the of- 
fice ; 2d, To the one who is in closest union with 
God, and takes least notice of himself ; 3d, To the 
one wdio shows most love for the members of the 
Order in general, and little if any private friend- 
ship ; 4th, To the one who displays the most zeal for 
the Order, and gives minutest attention to all the 
community exercises ; 5th, To the one who is most 
prudent in the management of business affairs, and 
is least inclined to have intercourse with people in 
the world. All these qualities may not be found 
united in a single person ; choose, then, the one 
who has most of them. 

10. Look upon your Order as a wise and merciful 
arrangement of the Holy Ghost to lead souls to per- 
fection. Often speak of the special favors it has 
received from heaven, and of the excellent services 
it has rendered to God and man by the prayers and 
labors of so many of its saintly members, who ended 
their days happily within its pale. Encourage your- 
self to imitate their example. A child that stains the 
luster of his family name, or squanders the estate, 
deserves to be held up to lasting reproach. 

11. If you notice an abuse creeping into your 



Duties of Religious toward their Superiors. 273 

community, do not complain of it, or speak of it 
to such as are helpless in the matter, but report the 
case to those who can provide a remedy. If, for 
some reason, you can not act, take refuge with God. 
Be the matter what it may. He is much concerned 
about it, because the community is His creation, and 
He can preserve it if He wills it. The blame of a 
conflagration rests with him who does not hasten 
to extinguish the first spark. 

'12, Daily implore the divine mercy to bless your 
Order by keeping its members in their first fervor, 
and directing to its fold such as will maintain and 
transmit the primitive fervor in its full vigor. 
Prayer for the maintenance of primitive fervor is 
the best proof of worthy membership. 

Reflection. 

Why is it that a number of houses, once zealous 
and well established, little by little fell into decay? 
The calamity must be ascribed chiefly to three 
causes : the want of vigilance on the part of Su- 
periors, the neglect of mortification, and free inter- 
course with the outside world. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Gouneels anD IRetlectlone tor Supertore, 

^rnpN exceedingly heavy and perilous cross is laid 
fJ^ upon Superiors along with the dignity of 
their office. A very holy ecclesiastic once wrote to 
his sister after she had become Superior of a con- 
vent : ^'My dear sister, I most fervently beg God 
to help you, that you may not succumb under so 
many crosses, that you may not become a martyr 
without merit or crown.'' Reflect that you must 
give an account before God if, through your negli- 
gence, irregularity creeps in, or if the Rules are not 
observed. A good old Carthusian used to say that 
the Religious Orders decayed more from headache 
than from gout, that is, more from faults of the 
head than from those of the feet, since faults come 
more often from Superiors than from subjects, be- 
cause those in authority close their eyes to disorders 
and irregularities. Before entering on your office, 
thank your Sisters for the honor and confidence 
shown you. Then tell them openly that you accept 
the office only to render them service, but in no way 
to risk your own soul. Tell them courageously 
that you are resolved to permit nothing, or to con- 
nive at nothing by which your conscience might be 
wounded. Such a declaration will prevent subjects 
from asking anything unreasonable or unsuitable, 
and will pave the way for a refusal in case such de- 
mands are made. By pursuing this course you will 
be able to discharge your duties with greater free- 
dom of conscience. 

Pay strict attention to the observance of the 



Counsels atid Reflections for Superiors. 275 

Rules, and try in every possible manner to abolish 
disorders which, if once introduced into the com- 
munity, can rarely be rooted out. Father P^ancis, 
a Discalced Carmelite, relates that an abbess ap- 
peared after death to one of her fellow-Sisters, and 
told her that she was suffering untold pains in pur- 
gatory on account of her carelessness in regard to 
the observance of the Rules, and her neglect of cer- 
tain orders given her by the prelate of the diocese. 
A Superior, moreover, is obliged to visit the differ- 
ent parts of the convent, diligently looking after 
everything and seeing that her orders are executed, 
for of what use are orders if not carried out? It is 
better, consequently, to give few orders, and have 
them attended to, than many and allow them to be 
neglected. Be solicitous that every one fulfils the 
duties in her charge, but avoid meddling too much 
in the offices of others. Another point to engage 
your constant watchfulness is to guard against par- 
ticular friendships springing up between the Re- 
ligious themselves, or betw^een them and seculars. 

Long sermons are not necessary, but duty obliges 
you to speak earnestly against faults committed in 
the community. That your subjects may keep 
the Rule exactly, you must lead the way by your 
owm good example. St. Joseph Calasanctius says : 
''Woe to the Superior w^ho urges on her subjects in 
beautiful discourses, but who draws them dowm by 
her bad example !" Be most diligent in assisting at 
all the exercises of the community, especially at the 
community prayer, since you are more in need of 
prayer than all the rest. You need a double portion 
of celestial nourishment, since you have to provide 
not only for your own soul, but for the souls of your 
subjects. Try always to be present in choir and in 
the refectory, for disorders easily creep in. Take 



276 Counsels and Reflections for Superiors. 

particular care never to permit yourself anything 
extra either in food or clothing. Direct the officers 
to take no more care of you than of the least in the 
convent. Govern your community with a firm hand, 
but ever bear in mind the meekness of our divine 
Master toward His chosen companions. He has told 
us Himself of His manner of treating them : "You 
know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it 
over them, and they that are the greater exer- 
cise power upon them ; it shall not be so among 
you, but whosoever shall be the greater among 
you, let him be your minister and he that will 
be first among you shall be your servant. Even 
as the Son of man is not come to be ministered 
unto, but to minister. I am in the midst of you as 
he that serveth.'' There you see the whole conduct 
of your divine Saviour. He was as a servant wait- 
ing on those whom He had chosen. 

Avoid favoritism. In the distribution of the 
offices of the convent, guard especially against 
human respect or natural inclination, and let 
Christian prudence mark your conduct, for you 
will have to render a strict account to Almighty 
God for the disorders that arise through your fault. 
Be cordial and humble toward all. Do not forget 
that you have been made Superior to be the servant 
of ail. By humility and sweetness, and not by 
haughtiness and arrogance will you gain the hearts 
of others, and then your admonitions and correc- 
tions will be taken in good part. If the Superior 
is not gentle and affable in her bearing, subjects 
lose confidence in her. They can not communicate 
to her their wants and sufferings, they cease to ask 
the permissions prescribed, and they do not make 
known, perhaps, certain little disorders in the com- 
munity. The government of such a Superior would 



Counsels and Reflections for Superiors. 277 

be a failure. Do not say : "My heart is good ; I mean 
well." If you treat others roughly, you will be 
avoided. You must lend a friendly and patient ear 
to ail that come to you ; otherwise many a little dis- 
order will exist in the convent, which (not having 
cognizance of it) you can not remedy. Does some 
Sister shun you? Encourage her to confide in you 
by showing her some special attention. If you 
have to distribute offices, impose tasks, or prohibit 
something, do not command under obedience, unless 
in some great necessity, and that rarely happens. 
Avoid intemperate peremptoriness, also too loud a 
tone. Say what you have to say graciously and in 
the manner of a request, as, for instance, "I beg you 
to do so and so,'' "Do me the kindness," "Grant me 
the favor," etc. In short, try to be more loved 
than feared. "As you would that men should do 
to you, do you also to them in like manner" (Luke 

^^- 31).. 

Especially in administering correction, you must 

be exceedingly mild. St. Ambrose says : "A kind 
correction, which simply calls attention to the fault, 
is more profitable than a violent reproof which ex- 
cites anger." St. Chrysostom says : "Are you 
really desirous of your brother's amendment? O 
then beseech him, admonish him with tears ! Cast 
yourself at his feet — be not ashamed even to kiss his 
feet if you sincerely desire to see him cured." Ad- 
minister corrections, especially the first, with mild- 
ness and in private. But if the fault deserves and 
demands public punishment because publicly com- 
mitted, even then admonish the delinquent first in 
private. Begin by praising her good qualities, and 
then proceed to show her the fault of which you 
complain ; and lastly, beg her not to be discouraged 
even if you are obliged, for the good of the com- 



278 Counsels and Reflections for Superiors. 

munity, to give a public correction. O how far 
more efficacious are admonitions given in this way 
than those marked by brusqueness and severity ! If 
the Superior is mild and gentle, she can 
lead her subjects by a silken thread. They will 
be absolutely devoted to her, and they will fol- 
low her with the most cheerful alacrity. Your 
Sisters look upon you as their mother. You must 
associate with them as a good mother does with her 
children. The aged and the infirm deserve special 
consideration. Entreat them in a gentle manner to 
correct their faults. You could say to them, for in- 
stance : "You know that I think a great deal of you, 
and I beg you to be more careful in the observance 
of such or such a Rule. The old must give good 
example to the young," etc. Sometimes you must 
watch your chance for days and even weeks to catch 
a suitable opportunity to give a correction with 
greater profit. Medicine, administered at the right 
time, restores health to the sick ; while the same 
given at the wrong time brings death. Many 
things must be left to Almighty God, and recourse 
must be had to prayer that He may remedy the evil. 
If, however, certain faults of individuals have evil 
consequences in respect to the community, if, for in- 
stance, they disedify others, annoy and burden them, 
or detract in any way from the observance of the 
Rule, then, indeed, the Superior must speak plainly 
and act energetically. In regard to certain evils, such 
as particular friendships or enmities, there must be 
no delay. The remedy must be applied promptly, for 
the longer such disorders last, the more difficult is it 
to banish them. Corrections must, indeed, be given 
with great mildness, but what can not be cured by 
gentleness must be attacked rigorously and severely. 
As the Apostle says: ''Reprove, entreat, rebuke!" 



Counsels and Reflections for Superiors. 279 

(2 Tim. iv. 2). The Rule of St. Augustine says the 
Superior ought to command both fear and love : love 
in the humble and docile, fear in the haughty and 
obstinate. A certain pious writer says that there 
are some who have hearts enclosed in leather armor. 
They are insensible to everything but the thrust of 
the lance. Neither kind nor harsh words effect any- 
thing. Sharp penances must be inflicted on them if 
they have committed grave faults. Not to fail in the 
delicate and difficult task of correction, you must 
go to work cautiously. Severe penances are like red- 
hot iron, burning out that which can not be removed 
in any other way. Furthermore, you must follow the 
rule of prudence, which forbids your acting in the 
matter before you have commended yourself to God 
in prayer, and taken counsel of others. Take care not 
to impose penances or to give severe reproofs when 
in a state of excitement. A penance would be of no 
avail if the subject performed it in anger. You 
must wait till passion has subsided on both sides. 
If the reproof must of necessity be severe, mingle 
a little oil with the vinegar, by telling the de- 
linquent that you love her and act only for her 
good. If a report has been lodged against any 
one, do not at once resort to reproofs and punish- 
ment. Inquire into the affair, listen to w^hat the ac- 
cused has to say, and weigh both sides maturely. 
Only after such deliberation should a Superior act. 
Things the most innocent are often seen in a very 
false light, and little infractions are sometimes re- 
ported as great faults. Some Superiors, unfortu- 
nately, believe all that is told them, and act like blun- 
dering physicians, who fail to make a careful diag- 
nosis before they apply their remedies. They act 
hastily ; they cut without necessity. Much pain and 
trouble may arise from such ill-advised precipita- 



28o Counsels mid Reflections for Superiors. 

.tion. May God preserve Superiors, during their 
government, from exercising revenge on any Sister 
who has opposed their election, and from being un- 
kind to those for whom they feel a natural antip- 
athy. As regards requests for special favors and 
exemptions, weigh the permissions that you are 
called upon to grant, and resolutely reject all human 
motives, such as friendship, gratitude, etc. To give 
permission for wdiat would be injurious to a soul 
would be folly and not charity. 

With regard to food and clothing, be as generous 
as the Rule allows. If the convent is poor and 
able to supply but little, see that that little is well 
prepared. It is better to provide the Sisters with 
abundant clothing, a generous and wholesome diet, 
and sanitary surroundings, for the preservation of 
their health and strength, than to erect a stately 
marble chapel or an imposing convent for the grati- 
fication of vanity. Let special care be taken of the 
sick. Let them be well served with medicine and 
nourishment and all the reliefs that can be pro- 
cured for them. Our Lord commanded St. Te- 
resa in very precise terms to nurse the sick well. 
The infirmarian ought to be a trained nurse and 
well informed with regard to modern hygiene, 
therapeutics, and surgical methods. In many cases 
of sickness, good nursing is of greater importance 
than medicine. Let the Superior visit the sick Sis- 
ters frequently, but let her not appear before them 
with a lugubrious countenance. A Superior com- 
ing to the infirmary with a bright face, a cheerful 
greeting, and a word of sympathy, exerts a healthful 
and invigorating influence on those who are sick 
and depressed. Cheerfulness is a better tonic than 
medicine. 

The foregoing kindly counsels are amplified and 



Counsels and Reflections for Superiors. 281 

reinforced by the following practical reflections 
from General Principles of the Religious Life: 

It would betray a most lamentable ignorance of 
your duties if you did not know that you ought to 
have even more care for your subjects than for 
yourself. Now that you stand to them in the place 
of Providence, you are bound to provide for all their 
wants in proportion as they have disowned self, re- 
nounced everything, and resigned themselves into 
the hands of God, their Heavenly Father. In respect 
to bodily health and the sanctification of their souls, 
you must assist them as you would your brothers 
and sisters, love them as if they were your children, 
and honor them as specially devoted servants of 
Jesus Christ, Who has given them in your charge, 
and w^ll one day exact a close reckoning from you 
on their account. The shepherd's reward, the 
welfare of his flock, and the owner's profits — 
all depend on the shepherd's care and watchful- 
ness. 

Consider that the three most excellent of persons 
that ever had charge of the children of God — Moses, 
Jesus Christ, and St. Peter — displayed very extraor- 
dinary affection. Be guided by great gentleness. 
When you have an order to give, do so in an hum- 
ble tone of voice, v/hich strikes the ear more like a 
request than a command. If you grant favors, do it 
with kindness. In case of a refusal, let the peti- 
tioner feel that you are sorry not to be able to oblige 
him. And as to reprimand, let it be administered 
without arrogance, harshness, or other passion. 
The meekness of a Superior sweetens the bitterness 
of a command. 

Keep before your mind that terrible vision in 
which the Superiors of a celebrated Order appeared 
in fire, and acknowledged that they had all been con- 



.282 Counsels and Rejections for Superiors, 

demned to that punishment because of their unfor- 
tunate, yielding temper. They had, in fact, left 
the discipline of the monastery to the discretion of 
the Religious, and in order to please the members 
had let the body go to ruin. Therefore never toler- 
ate the violation of a Rule or sacred custom. If you 
notice that gentleness does not avail to keep a Re- 
ligious well up to his duty, season gentleness with 
severity. Jesus, the mildest of men, once gave St. 
Peter a stern rebuke ; He often censured His 
apostles with emphasis and even rigor, and never 
recalled the severe strictures which He uttered 
against the Pharisees. Besides plenty of healing 
salves, a good shepherd must have a little caustic 
handy for use in case of need. 

A Superior's most necessary virtue is prudence — 
not the criminal prudence of time-serving policy, of 
which St. James speaks, the sole aim of which is 
to ingratiate itself and to let the term of office pass 
by pleasantly without thought of the future, but that 
supernatural virtue under the guidance of which a 
Superior employs every available means to make his 
subjects better, examines the character of each, and 
takes into consideration each one's necessities. Like 
a skilful physician, this kind of prudence prescribes 
remedies in accordance with the patient's disposi- 
tion and the nature of the ailment : always ready, 
when necessary, rather to cut off a gangrened mem- 
ber than to let the whole body become infected. Of- 
ten ask Heaven for this virtue, for it is not a growth 
of earth. Prudence is as necessary for a Superior 
in managing his community as a rudder is for a 
seaman in guiding his ship. 

In distributing the various offices, keep your eye 
'fixed, not so much on satisfying the expectations of 
the members, as on promoting the welfare of the 



Counsels and Reflections for Superiors. 283 

commnnity. Before assigning the offices pray that 
the Holy Ghost may enhghten you to know who are 
best quahfied to assume them and will best fulfil 
their duties. When you have made the choice as 
God directed you, examine from time to time how 
the places are filled. In this particular imitate the 
example of a prudent field-officer, who does not de- 
pend on his guards and subordinate officers to the 
extent that he does not at times make personal in- 
spection to see if every one is faithful in his duties. 
While a Superior may not appear suspicious, he 
must not relax in vigilance. One scabby sheep is 
sufficient to infect a whole flock. 

As to the reception of visitors, this should take 
place only in the reception room or parlor ; but you 
must be fully satisfied that the visitor is not an 
objectionable person, and that he makes but short 
and infrequent calls. The Religious who receives 
such calls must not in consequence of them become 
less punctual and obedient, nor less charitable to his 
fellow-Religious, nor fall a prey to spiritual de- 
moralization. If, however, the visitor is a stranger 
to you, calls too frequently, or protracts his stay 
longer than necessary and the Religious becomes re- 
miss in God's service, obeys less promptly, is less 
restrained in his ordinary intercourse, becomes 
haughty and overbearing, then do not hesitate a mo- 
ment, but cut off these visits without delay. He is a 
bad shepherd who does not beat off a prowling wolf. 

A Superior would be guilty of a very fatal mis- 
take if he allowed himself to l3e biased by a first re- 
port. He must incline to no decision till he has 
heard all the evidence in a case necessary to arrive 
at the truth. It is a most severe trial for an inferior 
to find his Superior's mind so prepossessed as to 
make it useless for him to present a statement. 



284 Counsels and Reflections for Superiors. 

Without doubt the most painful strain on a guiltless 
person is found in just such a state of things, and it 
requires more than common grace to bear it cheer- 
fully. Therefore, hold judgment in abeyance; and 
before you come to any definite conclusion endeavor 
quietly to obtain a complete knowledge of the facts 
in the case. A judge who takes the evidence of one 
side only will seldom give a just decision. 

You will surely direct your community with suc- 
cess if you possess the respect, love, and confidence 
of your subjects. You will gain their respect if 
your virtues correspond to your position ; if you first 
lay hand to difficulties and burden yourself with 
what is most repugnant to nature. You can cer- 
tainly rely on their love if they see that you have 
equal solicitude for all, but especially for the sick, 
the aged, and those who have little concern for 
themselves or their affairs. You will enjoy their 
fullest confidence if you manifest a sincere affection 
for them and maintain a scrupulous silence on mat- 
ters that they intrust to you. Respect, love, and 
confidence are the ties that firmly bind subjects to 
their Superiors. 

If all your Religious feel satisfied under your 
management — a case possible only when all are 
earnestly striving after perfection — thank God for 
the happy condition, but give Him alone the glory. 
If, however, you have discontented Religious under 
you, console yourself with the thought that even St. 
Benedict, though filled with the spirit of all the just, 
had to live with brethren who could not bear him ; 
that his great disciple St. Bernard had a secretary, 
a Religious named Nicolas, who persecuted and 
calumniated him ; that St. Francis Assisi was 
greatly worried on account of Brother Elias ; nay, 
that Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the very ideal 



Counsels and ReUections for Superiors. 285 

of a perfect Superior, had to bear with the traitor 
Judas, who injured Him more than any one can pos- 
sibly injure you. Consider that a cross-grained, 
discontented ReHgious acts the part of a rasp in 
the hands of a goldsmith, with which he scrapes off 
the slag from the nuggets of gold, or serves the pur- 
pose of a besom which rids the house of rubbish and 
dirt. A humble and zealous Religious is an edifica- 
tion for the members of a community ; while a proud 
and unstable member offers both his Superiors and 
fellow-members frequent opportunities to practice 
virtue and to lay up an abundance of rare merits. 

Have the names of all your Religious handy, and 
pray for them daily, particularly for such as stand in 
need of special assistance. Be on the alert for new 
ways and means which may do good service for 
their improvement, and never give up the hope of 
their ultimate amendment. Interest yourself in 
them and give them such aid and encouragement 
as from time to time they may require. Sincere and 
affectionate concern on the part of the Superior 
soothes interior anguish and diffuses bright sun- 
• shine in a clouded soul. 

Final Reflection. 

The office of a Religious Superior is a more diffi- 
cult one than that of an army commander ; for it is 
harder to direct men's interior than their exterior. 
It is, moreover, so much the more dangerous as it 
is a greater evil to let the soul go to ruin than the 
body. For that reason, too, the saints were always 
afraid of an office, and many fled from it as from a 
dangerous reef on which they might suffer miser- 
able shipwreck. Others accepted an office only by 
sheer force, and lived in constant dread of damna- 
tion ; for they knew but too well that God would call 



286 Counsels and Rejections for Superiors, 

them to account, not only for their own shortcom- 
ings, but also for those of their subjects which they 
might have prevented; however those who assume 
the Superiorship under constraint may not on that 
account wish themselves joy, since the responsibility 
remains the same, whether the office was accepted 
freely or under compulsion. Nothing in the world 
presses upon the sou! with such utter dead weight 
as the knowledge of having to account and atone for 
others ; nevertheless the Apostle writing to the 
Philippians (iv. 6, 13) says: ''Be nothing solicitous; 
but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with 
thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to 
God. I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth 
me." A Religious — a man in authority and of great 
experience — once said to the Editor of this book : 
"Go where you please, out in the turmoil of the 
world or into the solitude of the cloister, and 
you will find that everywhere Superiors must 
contend with recalcitrant subjects. There is al- 
ways some one who carries a knife in his sleeve. 
Even the most prudent, the kindest Superior will 
meet with malcontents and chronic grumblers.'' To 
this we say Amen. Therefore it behooves a Su- 
perior to cultivate liberty of spirit ; to perform her 
duty with a pure intention, and to remain calm, self- 
possessed, and patient when God permits things to 
happen contrary to her inclinations, her efforts, and 
her expectations. A soul endowed with liberty of 
spirit seeks only to please God, desires but His love 
and His grace. Her actions correspond with her 
prayer to the heavenly Father : ''Hallowed be Thy 
name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.'' Hav- 
ing done her duty, she is not anxious as regards re- 
suits. She trusts in God. Her watchword is : Ad 
major em Dei gloriam. 



CHAPTER XXX. 
Cbe Contemplative %\tc. 

2ri)e ilfDontemplatibe Uocation. 

IT happened once, thousands of years ago, that 
while a tribe of escaped slaves, untrained in 
war, poorly armed, and encumbered with women, 
children, and flocks, was marching through a 
granite-walled valley toward the region selected as 
its future home, the vanguard was suddenly set 
upon by a fierce band of natives. During the 
bloody battle which ensued, the leader of the wan- 
dering tribe went aside from the field to the summit 
of a neighboring hill. To look for the approach of 
reinforcements? Or to forecast the issue of the 
conflict? Or in order better to direct the move- 
ments of his fighting men ? No ! He went merely 
to stand upon the hilltop, and to beg w^ith out- 
stretched arms for the help of the God of battles. 
His prayer was heard. ''And when Moses lifted up 
his hands, Israel overcame ; but if he let them down 
a little, Amalec overcame. . . . And it came to pass 
that his hands wxre not weary until sunset, and 
Israel put Amalec and his people to flight by the 
edge of the sword.'' 

As a proof of the power of prayer, this incident, 
recorded by the sacred chronicler in the book of 
Exodus, possesses perhaps no special significance 
beyond many another instance equally well au- 
thenticated; yet, as symbolizing the role of contem- 
plation in the Christian life, it serves peculiarly well 
to illustrate a spiritual principle of the first impor- 



288 The Contemplative Life. 

tance. That prayer possesses a certain practical 
efficacy and should be employed by every individual 
laboring to attain an honest end is, of course, a 
truth admitted by all who recognize the existence of 
an omnipotent and benevolent God. Yet in its in- 
tegrity the utility of prayer seems not to be appre- 
ciated by all theists, or even by all Christians; and 
indeed we may assert that the principle of prayer, 
with all its consequences and imphcations, is ac- 
cepted only by those who give definite public sanc- 
tion to the state of life known as the contemplative. 
These are a very limited number. For while in 
theory, and according to the rules of rigid reason- 
ing, approval of the contemplative vocation should 
invariably accompany sincere profession of belief in 
the efficacy of prayer, yet, in fact, such approval 
is a thing distinctively Catholic. 

That to commune with God is a most valuable aid 
to human striving is so palpably evident that no 
Christian would, or could, ignore it. Setting aside 
the value which is traceable to the subjective results 
of prayer, to the psychological stimulus of ardent 
petition, to the enthusiasm born of concentrated in- 
tention — setting this aside, we perceive that man's 
labors are rendered doubly efficacious when joined 
with prayer. There is an invisible divine power 
strengthening the arm that has been lifted in suppli- 
cation, rounding and deepening the tones of the 
voice that, a moment ago, was silenced during the 
heart's still worship. There is a new force, sustain- 
ing and cooperating with the man of prayer as he 
goes about his work, a force that subdues opposition, 
and wins over the many who held aloof until the 
irresistible secret stirrings of God's Spirit impelled 
them to listen and respond. So declare all 
Christians. Can they speak differently merely 



The Contemplative Life. 289 

because the question concerns society instead of 
individuals ? 

Assuredly not ! If prayer is efficacious at all, it 
avails the community as well as the individual ; it 
possesses social as well as private value ; it should 
be regarded not simply as a general privilege, but 
rather as a public function also. 

In speaking of the social utility of prayer, we 
mean to insist not on the ethical and esthetic better- 
ment that results from a widespread veneration of 
holy persons and things, but on the claim of prayer 
to be accorded an honorable rank as a supernatural 
yet very real force contributing to the success of 
every legitimate social enterprise and to the fulfil- 
ment of every lofty human aspiration. Our mean- 
ing may be best realized, perhaps, by considering 
the role assigned to the Christian's private daily 
prayer, commonly regarded as an element multiply- 
ing the fruit of labor an hundredfold, steeling the 
frame against fatigue, averting danger, and open- 
ing up manifold new opportunities. In short, be- 
lievers generally concede that by prayer a man is 
certain to render his life far safer, far nobler, and 
far richer than it could possibly be otherwise. 
Were this principle not true, it would be hard to 
differentiate Providence from blind fate, or from 
the deist's apathetic God ; it would be hard to see 
how the normal mental attitude of the Christian 
could be, as it is, one of simple faith and trust in the 
ever ready help of the Almighty. On the other 
hand, if the principle is true ; if prayer really is a 
powerful social force ; then it should be taken ac- 
count of, and should be employed, in just such 
fashion as the Catholic Church proposes. 

Who that is a Christian can fairly contend against 
the Catholic ideal or the Catholic practice ? Has not 



290 The Contemplative Life. 

society, too, its function of prayer? Will not a di- 
viner power be at hand to assist that community 
whose labors are mingled constantly with strong 
cries that go forth to the listening God? Has the 
race no need for deep recesses of worship, for hid- 
den caverns of faith and hope and love hollowed out 
in the depths of the social heart ; for sweet, cooling 
springs of grace to slake the thirst of the multitudes 
that struggle in the heat of the day? And what 
more apt than that certain souls be set apart to fulfil 
just this purpose; to be the ''praying ones'' of the 
community by way of eminence ; to besiege heaven 
violently by word and deed ; to relinquish every 
other duty that this may be accomplished constantly 
and well ? 

Here, then, we find suggested a vindication of the 
Catholic teaching upon the contemplative life, the 
teaching, namely, that it is lawful and meritorious 
for some to give themselves over exclusively to lives 
of prayer. In the case of the souls who are encour- 
aged actually to embrace this state of life, tendency 
and aptitude have first indicated the nature of their 
gifts ; and then, possessed of a sublime faith in the 
value of converse with God, they have petitioned, 
and the Church has allowed, that their time and 
energy be wholly dedicated to the invisible ministry 
of the spirit; and the broad seal of divine approval 
so often stamped upon the career of the royal war- 
riors is now set with unmistakable impress upon the 
lives of those 

"Who only stand and wait." 

The student of religions should note that the con- 
templative vocation is something which no other 
society — at least no other Christian body — has ever 
had the sublime audacity to sanction. Yet one can 



The Contemplative Life. 291 

not resist the conviction that the Catholic ideal is 
alone consistent, and that the Catholic practice is the 
intelligent working out of the Gospel's deepest 
truths. This should be seen all the more clearly by 
a generation that boasts of its grasp on the luminous 
conception of society as an organism. For surely 
society has religious as well as political, economic, 
and educational functions ; and for the carrying on 
of each of these activities individuals ought to be 
chosen and groups formed from among those whose 
talents reveal peculiar adaptability and promise 
special success in this or that career. 

Specialization, of course, does not imply that any 
single group will absorb the whole of the particular 
activity for which it has been declared the most fit. 
Living organs are not constructed on strict me- 
chanical lines. As eye and hand and heart have cer- 
tain functions in common ; so, too, the duties of 
family and school and state to some extent overlap 
and trespass upon one another. It remains true, 
nevertheless, that the energy of each is applied 
mainly to a particular and specific end, and that pri- 
vate as well as public interests are best consulted 
when the division of labor is nicely and thoroughly 
made. 

Now, quite in accord with this is the Catholic 
conception of the contemplative life as a vocation 
apart, as the state of those who are called to conse- 
crate themselves to a life of exclusive prayer, thus 
enriching the store of spiritual experience and 
energy upon which the community may draw, 
though never in any sense relieving the active labor- 
ers of their personal necessity of private and public 
communion with God. True, under certain aspects, 
this likening of the contemplative to a specialist may 
seem more strained than is lawful even for a simile. 



292 The Contemplative Life. 

Admittedly, it will not throw light upon every case. 
Still, let us not be too hasty in rejecting it as there- 
fore completely uninstructive. Though exceptions 
and variations are to be looked for in any order, 
whether of nature or of grace ; though here, as else- 
where, geniuses may arise to transcend our classi- 
fications and to baffle our powers of analysis ; yet 
this does not invalidate the assertion that Christian 
philosophy should recognize the social use of con- 
templatives. Let vis repeat our belief boldly and 
plainly : the naturally and universally conceived con- 
cept of the ideal Christian commonwealth logically 
dictates the institution of what Catholics call con- 
templative communities. 

Some, perhaps, will feel repelled at the notion that 
the intercession of others may gain for them what 
they themselves have not prayed well enough to ob- 
tain. But such a notion should startle none who are 
accustomed to think of Christianity as a media- 
torial religion ; least of all nowadays, when the 
newly roused sense of human solidarity forcibly in- 
clines men toward that idea of atonement funda- 
mental in the Catholic interpretation of revealed 
truth. For truly the principle of vicarious substitu- 
tion gains new breadth and grandeur when the 
cloister is looked upon as a divinely efficacious efe- 
ment in the warfare against evil and in the building 
up of the kingdom of God. Our age has awakened 
to a new comprehension of the oneness of humanity. 
We begin now to perceive that the very constitution 
of the race demands just such a principle of com- 
mon responsibility, guilt, punishment, and redemp- 
tion, as that assured by Catholic dogma. We see 
how not only the first head of the race, x\dam, and 
the second head, Christ, but men in every land and 
age wield tremendous, far-reaching, and long-lived 



The Contemplative Life. 293 

influence for good or evil ; how, in truth, each one 
of us incessantly plays the alternate roles of debtor 
and creditor in a universal, never-ending give-and- 
take. Hence we realize that each must be appor- 
tioned merit or demerit ; each must of necessity par- 
take of the general reward or general punishment. 
As men struggle up from savagery into civilization ; 
as knowledge and reverence replace ignorance and 
craven fear ; as we move onward by the thousand 
paths of culture toward purer light and higher life ; 
it is the inahenable. prerogative of every human be- 
ing to share, if he will, in the glory of our common 
success. The thought is one which wins from us a 
willing acceptance of weighty responsibilities, and 
softens our souls with the sense of a new emotion, 
the glad consciousness of human solidarity. 

Will it be denied that in the religious order a 
corresponding instinct impels the recognition of a 
corresponding truth ? Surely no ! And how will 
this noble aspiration of ours be better satisfied than 
by the acceptance of the deep-reaching spiritual 
truth which Christianity formulates in its doctrine 
of the communion of saints ? When fully fathomed, 
this teaching discloses to us a ceaseless interchange 
of spiritual energy and merit even here on earth be- 
tween the members of the Church militant; it tells 
how the sinner is saved by the prayer of the saint; 
how the apostolate is Hnked wnth the priesthood sac- 
rificing at the altar ; how the labors of the mission- 
ary in city slum or African jungle reap fruit a hun- 
dredfold because united with the pleading cry that 
goes up from cell and choir whither sinner and 
stranger alike are forbidden to approach. It reveals 
to us likewise an explanation of those penitential 
usages so inevitably dominant in the homes of con- 
templatives ; and again our sense of human unity is 



294 The Contemplative Life. 

pathetically renewed and deepened as we reflect that 
the measure of what is lacking to us — the callous, 
the ungenerous, the cowardly members of the race — 
is perhaps filled up by the pain that scourge and fast 
and sackcloth inflict upon those innocent, tender 
souls who thirst as Christ thirsted to pay the un- 
satisfied debts of their fellow-creatures. 

It may be concluded, then, that all who have any 
belief whatever in the power of prayer should recog- 
nize the contemplative vocation as a valid and so- 
cially useful state of life. Some special emphasis 
might w^ell be laid on the close connection between 
such recognition and the religious spirit ; for we may 
say that esteem — though not necessarily adoption — 
of the contemplative vocation is a fairly reliable test 
of the purity and depth of our religion. And if it be 
true that those of reverent spirit will esteem this 
state, it is equally true that none others can esteem 
it as it deserves. No amount of rationalizing will 
ever suffice to reveal its full beauty and worth. To 
be sure, there are certain characteristics of the con- 
templative life which favor its appeal to the mind 
of our age. For instance, it is unlikely, nowadays, 
that a claim to immense power will be disallowed 
simply because of the claimant's unpretentious ap- 
pearance. The moderns have learned better than 
that from their study of the wonder-working electric 
current and of the infinitesimal bacilli that rule the 
lives of men and cities. Then, again, the realization 
of solidarity and the tendency to specialization may, 
as we have tried to show, predispose minds to a 
more kindly view of the cloistered life. Yet when 
all is said, the question remains as to whether or not 
prayer really has any efficacy at all. Only the spir- 
itual-minded man will answer that it has ; and the 
spiritual-minded man will necessarily answer that it 



The Contemplative Life. 295 

has. Indeed, his valuation of prayer, and conse- 
quently of the contemplative vocation in its own or- 
der, will vary in an ascending or descending scale ac- 
cordingly as his religious sentiment is or is not lively 
and fervent and deep. x\nd all this serves as one more 
illustration of the striking harmony of Catholic doc- 
trine, whose every detail supports, and is in turn 
supported by, all the others. If there be truth at all 
in Catholicity, therefore, this also is true — that the 
work of the missionary is made fruitful not only by 
the hours he himself has spent in prayer, but by the 
countless holy aspirations that stream up to Heaven 
daily and nightly from the worshiping hearts of soli- 
tary contemplatives. 

The reader need expect no attempt on our part, 
as indeed there is no desire, to prove the views pre- 
sented any further than they are already established 
in virtue of necessary connection with truths uni- 
versally accepted by the Christian consciousness. 
The starting-point of any vindication of the con- 
templative vocation must of course consist of a 
great assumption, namely, the utility of prayer. Ex- 
cept thus imperfectly and by a process devoid of 
all appearance of finality, the truth in hand admits 
of no argument, as being of an order outside the 
narrow circle of what can be proven or disproven. 
But what can be put forward w4th all assurance is 
the affirmation that the Catholic estimate of the con- 
templative vocation is in perfect harmony with the 
most fundamental truths of supernatural religion; 
that it is involved in them ; that it is the implicit or 
expressed tradition of the Christian centuries ; and 
finally, that if it be false, then an overwhelming 
majority, if not all, of our religious beliefs must be 
altered, scouted, perhaps utterly rejected. 



296 The Contemplative Life. 



We CfTontemplatibe ^postolate. 

The foregoing leads us to a point far too seldom 
taken into account in the consideration of the sub- 
ject before us. This is the sense of contemplatives 
themselves as to the real purpose of their being. 

It is commonly thought and sometimes plainly 
stated that the primary impulse of the contemplative 
must needs be selfish ; that, since he or she flies from 
the world purely or mainly in the interest of per- 
sonal salvation and perfection, this action must be 
prompted by inordinate self-interest, by an egotistic 
anti-social instinct quite incompatible with the high 
conception of life as a consecration of self to the 
betterment of humanity. 

Now, as a matter of fact, the charge is based upon 
an utter misapprehension of the main issue. The 
contemplative ideal centers around, the conception 
of prayer as a very real means of serving mankind 
at large. Just as no man embarks upon the stormy 
career of a missionary chiefly for his own immediate 
benefit, so no true contemplative enters the silent 
cloister mainly for his or her own sake. In the one 
case as in the other it is thirst for souls that forms 
the great motive. That this statement may not be 
regarded as an unwarranted exaggeration, let refer- 
ence be made to a work"^ written by a Carthusian 
for the purpose of recalling the significance of their 
vocation to contemplative Religious, and of exposing 
the attractive ideal of this life to those souls who 
are fitted to undertake the task of converting sinners 
and of perfecting saints by the sole ministry of 

*La Vie Contemplative: Son Role Apostolique. Par Un 
Religieux Chartreux. 



The Contemplative Life. 297 

prayer. This book lends the whole weight of its 
authority to the notion just advanced, and says ex- 
pHcitly that zeal for souls rather than any immediate 
personal benefit mtist be the motive of a contem- 
plative vocation. The author protests vigorously 
against the supposition that persons enter the 
cloister to rest with folded arms, to obtain salva- 
tion sweetly and peacefully, sheltered from wind 
and sun, and totally indifferent to the souls that per- 
ish outside the convent walls. After reading his 
exposition, or honestly examining the professed aim 
and faithful practice of the Orders in question, one 
grows indignant that people who could easily ac- 
quire correct information on the matter should per- 
sist in covert insinuations against the motives that 
draw souls to the cloister. The cynical distrust of 
the unbelieving, who scoff at all things holy, would 
scarcely be worthy of our indignation. Far more 
painful is it when those of the household indulge in 
open or veiled criticism of the inactive Orders ; ques- 
tion their earnestness, their judgment, or their 
utility ; and speak as if to be drawn toward the clois- 
ter were to be tempted to loiter in the sweets of con- 
templation at the cost of giving aid to suffering 
mankind. Is it true that the contemplative is a 
weakling seeking shelter? Is it true that the cloister 
is a more comfortable home than the mission house ? 
Is it right to assume that sufferers are helped by 
those who labor and not by those who pray? Is it 
fair to contrast the active and the contemplative Re- 
ligious by saying that it is easier to pray or to imag- 
ine one is praying than to tend the plague-stricken in 
hospitals ? Yet one can not be blind to the fact that, 
in some measure, precisely these misapprehensions 
affect some of the faithful, some of the priesthood, 
and even some Religious vowed to a state of life 



298 The Contemplative Life. 

meant to be incompatible with so low a notion of 
the worth of simple prayer. 

Unless the whole Christian concept of life is 
wrong, then much fruit must come of fervent prayer 
directed toward supplying the needs of the apostle 
and of the sinners for whom he is laboring. And 
to this end, as has been said, do the contemplatives 
really direct their vigils. Were we seeking for 
practical confirmation of this, for an illustration of 
the fact that contemplatives really and seriously con- 
ceive of their vocation as an auxiliary apostolate^ 
we might well turn to the Carmelites, who, as our 
author says, ''are before all an apostolic Order." 
Their very motto tells us this : ''With zeal am I con- 
sumed for the Lord God of hosts" — ''Zelo zelatiis 
sum pro Domino Deo exercitinunf' This has air- 
ways been a characteristic of Carmel from the be- 
ginning ; and St. Teresa's reform emphasized it. In 
the opening chapter of the IVay of Perfection, she 
states very plainly that she founded the monastery 
of St. Joseph in Avila, and founded it in special aus- 
terity, because of her desire to relieve the Church's 
miseries and to stem the tide of heresy. How care- 
fully does she teach her nuns that they would be 
recreant to their duty if they were to lose their time 
in praying for anything else than what immediately 
concerned the salvation of souls. "This is your 
vocation," she says ; "this is to be your employment 
and your desire ; to this your tears, to this your 
petitions tend." 

A recent occurrence will serve admirably to evi- 
dence both the apostolic ambition of contemplatives 
and the popular failure to appreciate it. Those of 
our readers who are familiar with the life of Sister 
Therese, The Little Flower of Jesus, will recall 
how the closing chapter of her autobiography sets 



The Contemplative Life. 299 

forth her intensest longing to cooperate by prayer in 
the work of the apostolic priesthood. Among the 
many lovely pages in her volume, one of the most 
beautiful is that which records her inexpressible de- 
light at having been chosen to unite her prayers with 
the labor of a missionary priest. In still another pas- 
sage her apostolic yearning for souls rings out into 
this chant of holy aspiration :* 

'To be Thy spouse, a Carmelite nun, the mother 
of souls : should not that more than suffice me ? Yet 
I feel that I have other vocations besides. I would 
be Thy warrior, Thy priest. Thy apostle, a teacher 
of Thy law, a martyr for Thee. . . . Like the 
prophets, like the doctors, I would enlighten the 
world, traveling in every land, preaching Thy name, 
O my Beloved, and raising the standard of Thy 
cross in every heathen place. For one mission 
would not suffice ; I would spread the Gospel every- 
where, even to the farthest ends of the earth, and 
work thus not for a few vears onlv, but from the 
beginning to the end of time.'' She wished for mar- 
tyrdom, too, to be scourged and crucified like 
Christ, flayed like Bartholomew, plunged like John 
into boiling oil, ground by the teeth of wild beasts 
like Ignatius of Antioch, beheaded like Agnes and 
Cecilia, burned at the stake like Joan of Arc. These 
unsatisfied cravings tortured her with the sense of 
helplessness ; she could not actually endure all these 
things, and she suffered at the thought. But at last 
the real significance of her vocation flashed upon her 
and in a moment she understood that the Church 
''must pray and love as well as work ;" that, besides 
external organs, it must possess a heart ; and that 

*T/x^ Little Flower of Jesus: Being the Autobiography 
of vScEur Therese of the Child Jesus. Translated from the 
French by Michael Henry Dziewicki. 



300 The Contemplative Life. 

this heart must be filled with love, for "should that 
fail, no more apostles would preach, no more mar- 
tyrs bleed." Immediately her soul found peace. 
Beside herself with joy at having found this clue to 
the meaning of her life, she cried out : "O Jesus ! I 
have now discovered that my vocation is — to love ! 
I have found the place which Thou Thyself hast 
given to me in the Church. Within its heart I shall 
be love — and thus I shall be all ; and what I dreamed 
shall be realized. . . . All I ask for is love. Let 
that, O Jesus, be my all. Great deeds are not for 
me; I can not spread the Gospel, nor shed my 
blood. No matter ! My brothers* labor for me, and 
I, at the foot of Thy throne, love for them. ... I 
love Thee, Jesus ; I love Mother Church and know 
that the least thing done out of pure love is more to 
her than all other works together.'" A picture more 
faithful, a revelation more beautiful of the contem- 
plative's apostolic sense could scarcely be obtained. 
And now a word on the common conception or 
rather misconception of this sublime ideal that re- 
veals itself in the heart of the Little Flower as a 
vision of appealing beauty firing mind and will with 
sympathy and ardent inspiration. It happens that 
a reviewer of Sister Therese's autobiography has 
taken occasion, of the very passages now under con- 
sideration, to draw out a lengthy comparison of the 
active and the contemplative vocations. Alongside 
the Little Flower's account of her dreams and 
aspirations, he places a narrative of the labors un- 
dertaken and the privations endured by a Sister en- 
gaged upon the foreign missions. ''There seems to 
be a lesson,'' is his comment, ''in this contrast of 

*Her ''brothers" were two young missionaries in union 
with whose labors her prayers were offered to God by the 
direction of her Superior. 



The Contemplative Life. 301 

two maidens, one of whom is dreaming in her clois- 
ter, while the other is laboring under the African 
sun, amid the snow^s of the Rocky Mountains, or in 
a Chinese mission station about to be set fire to by 
the Boxers. Why should I not communicate that 
lesson to young girls resolved to give themselves to 
God, yet hesitating between the two vocations ? . . . 
With Bossuet, I believe that the perfection of the 
Christian life does not require one to enter a 
hermetically sealed cloister." 

Now it is but fair to state that in other places 
this writer has shown that his purpose is rather to 
praise the active communities than to disparage the 
contemplatives ; and he does indeed profess that 
Carmel is a lofty, beautiful ideal, worthy of the gen- 
erosity of pure and ardent souls. It may be, too, 
that in France there is some danger of the contem- 
plative state being unduly exalted, of its being 
represented as "the ideal toward which the elite of 
humanity always tends." If this be the case, then 
our critic's aim is thus far legitimate, and his words, 
from this point of view, are beyond reproach. Yet 
one can not ignore his recurring insistence on the 
superiority of the missionary career as the actual 
realization of what to the contemplative can never 
be more than a dream. Against this representation 
the Christian instinct rises at once in protest. The 
contemplative apostolate is more than a dream ; it 
is divinely real ; it is a mighty force perfectly objec- 
tive, wonderfully efficacious ; and if there be any 
wisdom in the Gospel counsel, any harmony in the 
teachings of faith, any sincerity in Christ's invita- 
tion to prayer, then purely a soul that enters Carmel 
may be a most precious factor in the continuing of 
the ministry of Jesus, in the building up of the king- 
dom of God. 



302 The Contemplative Life. 

However it may be in France, in our own land, at 
any rate, it is good occasionally to insist on this as- 
pect of the matter, and to remind Catholics not of 
the limitations, but of the divine worth of contem- 
plative Orders. Ours is an age and a people con- 
stitutionally impatient of any ideal that excludes 
practical heroism and lacks visible fruit. Even 
those who concede, as it were reluctantly, that re- 
ligion has a higher function than the service of the 
widow and the fatherless, even these are not content 
that a state prohibitive of external ministrations 
should be held up as an ideal for aspiring souls. We 
are apt to be told over and over that whatever is 
estimable in the life of the Carmelite or the Poor 
Clare can be found in union with new treasures in 
the career marked out for Sisters of Mercy, or of 
Charity, or of The Foreign Missions ; to be warned 
persistently, almost incessantly, against a too con- 
fiding and a too excessive sympathy with the mystic 
visions that draw souls to Carmel and La Trappe. 

No doubt, as long as man remains man, each hu- 
man being will tend to exalt his or her vocation to 
the disparagement of others. The hermit will be 
prone to include his solitude and the missionary his 
ministry of sacrifice and reconciliation among the 
necessary conditions of the most perfect state. Dis- 
pute on the question will give little satisfaction and 
no edification ; and neither side of such a contro- 
versy will be defended here. Nevertheless, it seems 
not wholly vain to say something by way of com- 
ment upon that state of life which those who might 
be called its natural defenders have so little oppor- 
tunity to explain. 

When we consider the comparative rarity of the 
contemplative vocation ; when we enumerate the 
common normal obstacles to the choosing and fer- 



The Contemplative Life. 303 

vent practicing of the cloister-rule; when we real- 
ize what peculiar and constant graces are needed for 
perseverance to the very end; then few of us will 
be ready to assert that to be a contemplative is easier 
than to visit prisons and hospitals. 

For the more hidden life there is required so won- 
drous a combination of natural and supernatural 
gifts that the consideration of them might well dis- 
may the bravest of souls. To the eye of faith all this 
is at once evident ; and one is tempted to believe that 
there must always be a subtle rationalism underly- 
ing the tendency to present as the nobler elements of 
the religious life those external activities which may 
be undertaken, and in some measure have been suc- 
cessfully achieved, by mere philanthropists ; and, on 
the other hand, to regard as a lesser thing the prac- 
tice of that loving communion which is absolutely 
beyond the reach of the most arduous human striv- 
ing. A soul filled w4th faith would employ a very 
different scale of values. To conceive of the con- 
templative occupation as a mere luxurious idling in 
spiritual delights is possible only to a mind so far 
tainted with materialism as to be out of tune with 
the sweet harmonies of the divine love-song and 
densely impervious to the vision of the obstacles 
against which the soaring spirit of man must 
struggle incessantly. 

It is understood, of course, that the claim for 
peerless and universal excellence is not going to be 
transferred from the active to the contemplative Or- 
ders. Comparisons have always been invidious ; and 
they become more so every day. Men are gradually 
rising above that stage of mental immaturity in 
which they used dogmatically to declare that what 
loomed largest to them was the biggest and bright- 
est thing in the universe. A fair mind will instantly 



304 The Contemplative Life. 

recognize the inutility and loolishness of declaring 
that the contemplative life is *'the ideal state;" but 
equally useless and foolish would be the declaration 
that it is not. The real concern of each soul that 
strives to imitate God must be to discover and to 
embrace the mode of life best adapted to produce in 
itself a perfect conformity with the divine design. 
Only of secondary importance, if any, is it for a 
soul to know where the greatest perfection lies 
technically and in the abstract; since the one prac- 
tical and indispensable requisite is a correct discern- 
ment and adoption of the means whereby it person- 
ally can become what the Creator destined it to be. 

Hence it is ungracious and misleading critically 
to contrast the vocations of Mary and Martha, and 
to dwell upon the ostensible superiority of the latter 
in variety of trials and in fulness of achievement. 

Such contrast necessarily implies the mistake of 
venturing to measure hardships by very human and 
therefore very uncertain standards ; for, unless 
saints and spiritual writers in general be given the 
lie, then far more exquisite than the torments of 
martyrdom is the pain endured in the processes of 
purification and refinement through which souls pass 
in their ascent to the sacred heights of prayer. 

And as to achievements, the same caution is to be 
observed. If the spirit of faith sanctions anything, 
surely it guarantees the belief that man's labors are 
in a sense for the benefit of man rather than of God 
— since God at wish can send legions of angels to 
enhance each success, or to retrieve each failure of 
His servants. Every lesson draw^n from the life of 
the Incarnate God, every observation of our own 
and our neighbors' lives, forces us to conclude that 
the efficacy of prayer is beyond all proportion 
greater than the efficacy of work ; and that although 



The Contemplative Life. 305 

external labor must be undertaken when God so 
wills, yet it forms no predominant, and even no es- 
sential, part of holy living. It is the instinct of the 
deeply religious heart, as it is the spirit of the 
Church's practice, to assume that an unmeasured 
and immeasurable amount of good is effected by 
souls who do nothing else than pray. In fact this 
truth, as we have seen, follows close upon one of 
the most fundamental and most significant of Catho- 
lic doctrines, namely, that all are members one of 
another, that all partake of the life vivifying Christ's 
mystical body, and that, in a very real cooperation, 
we all are striving by common effort to attain a com- 
mon end. So as the hand may not say to the heart, 
**I have no need of thee," the active shall not say to 
the contemplative Religious, ''I have done more than 
thou." 

True, Sister Therese could name no list of souls 
saved by her ministrations, yet we dare say the 
young priest whose auxiliary she became could tell 
of many a marvelous success, many a striking vic- 
tory of missionary zeal attributed to her interces- 
sion ; just as the nuns and missionaries of Africa 
and Oceanica no doubt could relate many an un- 
looked-for favor referable only to the invisible as- 
sisting powers. Of course the connection could not 
be traced in these cases ; nor can the efficacy of such 
cooperation ever be proven ; yet not on that account 
will the truth of it be less evident to minds appre- 
ciative of the fine, mysterious workings of grace, nor 
will any remain insensible to its appeal except per- 
sons by temperament indisposed to all belief in 
the mystical vocation. But go to the missionary 
whose voice has been ringing through crowded 
churches up and down the land these twenty years, 
and whose hand has set the seal of pardon on thou- 



3o6 The Contemplative Life. 

sands after thousands of repentant sinners ; speak 
with the friend of the vagrant, the wayward, 
the degenerate ; question the priest or the nun whose 
days are spent with Indians, or Negroes, or Chi- 
nese, and see if these heroic members of the 
Christian apostolate have nothing to say of mes- 
sage or letter or visit that is repeated periodi- 
cally, testifying to their dependence on the cloister, 
breathing their faith in the apostolate of contempla- 
tion, binding them in closest ties of love and grati- 
tude with Carmelite and Dominican, with Visitan- 
dine and Poor Clare. 

Here are we striving for the conversion of Amer- 
ica, with a vigorous army of priests that patrols the 
continent from end to end, and God is rewarding 
their efiforts with unprecedented success. Oh, for 
the further blessing to be gained by a keener sense 
of what prayer can do, by a deeper insight into the 
significance of the contemplative apostolate ! It is 
told of Mgr. Lefebvre that when, having been made 
a Bishop in Cochin-China, he proclaimed that his 
very first action would be the founding of a Car- 
melite monastery at Saigon, some one ventured to 
comment upon this by saying : 

''Necessaries ought to precede luxuries in the 
building up of a diocese. '^ 

The Bishop replied : 

''What you consider a luxury, is to me the first 
necessity of the Christian ministry. Ten nuns who 
pray will help me more than twenty missionaries 
who preach.'' 

Nothing but a perfectly sublime faith could dic- 
tate a response like that. Let similar faith be in the 
souls of every one of us, of us who have set hearts 
and hopes upon the Catholicization of our country. 
When we are beseeching the Lord of the harvest to 



The Contemplative 'Life. 307 

send laborers into the whitened fields, at the same 
time let us beg that He will increase the number of 
those choice spirits, His precious vessels of grace, 
who are set apart to spread the light of faith by 
means of prayer— 

**Sonls high on Carmel's hill, 
Yet spent for brothers on the plain below." 

To-day our country has a few contemplative 
houses, a pusilhts grex. But while nations in Eu- 
rope are driving forth their Religious into exile, let 
this land of liberty receive them, let America's arms 
be opened wide to them in welcome. Then through 
the length and breadth of the land, and in the depths 
of each Catholic heart, will be spread the fragrance 
of fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit, of prayer."^ 

*Rev. Joseph McSorley, C.S.P., in The American Ec- 
clesiastical Review, November, 1902: — "The Contemplative 
Vocation and The Contemplative Apostolate." 



CHAPTER XXXL 

Ipra^cr—lDocal prater In iparttculan 

y^ HE grace of prayer is a universal grace, granted 
^^ to all men; it is also a sufficient grace, for by 
it we can obtain every other grace necessary for sal- 
vation ; it is a grace that is in every man's power ; it 
is also a grace which every man must use if he 
wishes to be saved — in a word, prayer is the prin- 
cipal sufficient grace granted to all men for their 
salvation. 

Prayer is a real grace, for the power of calling on 
God' for supernatural help is truly a gift of God 
in the supernatural order, a real help of salvation. 

Prayer is a universal grace, because it is in the 
power of every man who has attained the age of rea- 
son and enjoys its use. Prayer is in everybody!s 
power, for prayer is so easy that no one can reason- 
ably pretend that he is unable to pray. Every man 
can pray, be he rich or poor, learned or illiterate, 
healthy or sick, strong or weak, young or old, busy 
or at leisure. ''In speaking with God or praying,'" 
says St. Teresa, "we need not use many words or 
choice phrases ; all that is requisite is that we remain 
deeply recollected in His presence, simply stating to 
Him our wants in our own words, or merely in our 
thoughts without uttering a single word, and 
reminding Him of His promise to help us." 

Prayer is, indeed, so easy that every one can pray 
whenever he wishes, not only in health, but even in 
sickness and in the agony of death ; for, as long as 
the dying retain consciousness, they are able to raise 
their hearts to God in prayer. Moses burdened with 
the cares of an immense multitude of an unruly 



Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular: 309 

people, Daniel in the lions' den, the three young men 
in the midst of the fiery furnace, St. Joseph in his 
workshop, St. Paul in his dungeon, St. Isidore at the 
plow and caring for his flock — found time to pray 
and delighted in doing so. We can, if we wish, imi- 
tate them amid our daily occupations, however la- 
borious and distracting they may be in themselves. 
The grace of prayer is a constant grace, for every 
one can pray at all times ; during the day and at 
night, as the early Christians used to do, according 
to the testimony of Tertullian. We can pray early 
and late, in all places, at home and in church, on land 
and on sea, in private and in public, in all occupa- 
tions, whether mental or corporal ; in all positions, 
even in walking and in lying down. God is every- 
where present, and is ever ready to listen to our peti- 
tions for His help. 

Prayer, if well made, is infallible in its results. 
We can, of ourselves, do nothing for our salvation, 
for Christ says : ''Without Me you can do nothing" 
(John XV. 5). Since God wills that we should at- 
tain a destiny beyond the reach of our natural 
powers. He must necessarily be willing to grant us 
His help to attain it, whenever we earnestly pray for 
it. In fact, says St. Augustine, ''God is more will- 
ing to grant us favors than we are to receive them." 
"God is always ready," says St. John Chrysostom, 
"to hear the voice of His servants praying to Him ; 
He has never yet neglected to hear it when 
called upon as He should be." The prophet 
Isaias (xxx. 19) had already said the same 
thing : "God will surely have pity on thee ; at the 
voice of thy cry, as soon as He shall hear, He will 
answer thee." "The Lord," says the Royal Prophet, 
"is nigh to all them that call upon Him in truth; 
He will do the will of them that fear Him ; He will 



310 Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 

hear their prayer, and save them" (Ps. cxliv. i8, 

19). 

We have the formal and solemn promise of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ that God will hear our prayers 
and grant us all we ask, for He says expressly : 
''Amen, amen, I say to 3^ou, if you ask the Father 
anything in My name, He will give it you. . . . Ask, 
and you shall receive'' (John xvi. 23, 26). ''You 
shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done 
unto you" (John xv. 7). God is faithful and just, 
and will, therefore, surely keep His promise to grant 
us the graces we need, because we have a claim to 
them. They are the price of the blood and merits of 
Jesus Christ, for He died to save us. His merits 
are, then, ours ; and, w^hen we claim by our prayers 
a share in them or in their fruits, God can not refuse 
to grant us what we ask. 

The Holy Scriptures are full of examples of the 
efificacy of prayer as a means of obtaining whatever 
we need to secure our salvation. It was by his 
prayer that the publican was justified, by her prayer 
that the Samaritan woman was converted ; it was by 
his prayer that David obtained the forgiveness of 
his sin, and that the good thief on the cross was 
converted and received the promise of paradise. We 
find in Holy Writ also many examples of prayer as 
an efficacious means of obtaining even temporal fa- 
vors. It was by prayer that Moses obtained the vic- 
tory over the Amalecites ; Elias obtained rain after 
a three years' drought ; Manassas, his deliverance 
from prison and his restoration to his kingdom ; 
Ezechias, the prolongation of his life ; Solomon, wis- 
dom ; Susanna, the proof of her innocence ; Daniel, 
his deliverance from the lions ; the blind man, his 
sight; and the Church, St. Peter's deliverance from 
prison and death. When we pray, God in some 



Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 311 

manner obeys our will, as He obeyed that of Josue 
when by his prayer he commanded the sun to stand 
still : "The Lord," says Scripture, ''obeying the 
voice of a man" (Jos. x. 14). 

Prayer is, as the Wise Man says, ''a shield where- 
with to oppose the divine wrath." God is almighty ; 
and yet to this question of the Psalmist, *'Thou art 
terrible, O God, and who shall resist Thee?" (Ps. 
Ixxv. 8) we can answer: "Prayer!" because prayer 
also is almighty, and in some sense capable of over- 
coming God Himself. We have a most remarkable 
example of this in Moses. Holy Scripture thus re- 
lates the fact : ''The people, seeing that Moses de- 
layed to come down from the mount [Sinai], gath- 
ering together against Aaron, said : Arise, make us 
gods, that may go before us ; for, as to this Moses, 
we know not what has befallen him. And Aaron 
said to them : Take the golden earrings from the 
ears of your wives and your sons and daughters, and 
bring them to me. And the people did what he had 
commanded, bringing the earrings to Aaron. And 
when he had received them, he made of them a 
molten calf ; and they said : These are thy gods, O 
Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt. And Aaron built an altar before it. And 
rising in the morning, the people offered holocausts 
and peace-victims, and sat down to eat and drink, 
and they rose up to play. And the Lord spoke to 
Moses : Thy people hath sinned. Let Me alone, that 
My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I 
may destroy them" (Exod. xxxii. i-io). Why 
should God, who is almighty and irresistible, ask 
Moses to 'iet Him alone" — that is, not to interfere 
Avith His design of destroying the idolatrous Israel- 
ites? What could Moses effect against God? But 
Moses could pray ; and, taking the hint, he did inter- 



312 Prayer— Vocal Prayer in Particular. 

fere, saying: "Why, O Lord, is Thy indignation en- 
kindled against Thy people? Let Thy anger cease, 
and be appeased upon the wickedness of Thy 
people/' His prayer met with perfect success, for 
it appeased God's wrath, compelling Him, as it 
were, to show mercy. "And the Lord was appeased 
from doing the evil He had threatened against His 
people." 

Prayer is, then, in a certain sense, almighty, able 
to overcome God Himself; it is unfailing in its ef- 
fects, and at the same time so easy as to be in the 
power of every adult whenever he wishes. "All 
excuse," says St. Alphonsus, "is taken away from 
those sinners who pretend that they have not the 
strength to overcome their temptations, because, if 
they had recourse to prayer and made use of this 
ordinary grace bestowed on all men, they would ob- 
tain all the strength they need to overcome tempta- 
tion and save their souls. No one is damned for 
the original sin of Adam, but solely for his own 
fault, because God refuses to no one the grace of 
prayer whereby he may obtain His assistance to 
overcome every passion, every temptation." 

"He w^ho prays," says St. Alphonsus, in another 
place, "is certainly saved ; he who prays not is cer- 
tainly lost. All the blessed (except infants) have 
been saved by prayer. All the damned have been 
lost by not praying ; had they prayed, they would not 
have been lost. And this is and will be their greatest 
torment in hell, to think how easily they might have 
been saved, had they only prayed to God for His 
grace; but that is now too late — for the time of 
prayer is now over for them." We have just seen 
how effective prayer is, because it is the infallible 
means of gaining heaven. St. Augustine is, then, 
right in calling prayer "the key of heaven." 



Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 313 

The necessity of prayer is twofold, viz., as a pre- 
cept of God and as an indispensable means of salva- 
tion. First, as a precept. God repeatedly com- 
mands us in the Old Testament to have recourse to 
prayer: *'Cry to Me'' (Jer. xxxiii. 3) ; ''Call on Me" 
(Ps. xlix. 15). In the New Testament Jesus Christ 
expressly commands us to pray. ''Ask," He says, 
"and you shall receive ; seek, and you shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened to you" (Matt. vii. 7; 
Mark xi. 24; Luke xi. 9). ''Pray, lest you enter into 
temptation" (Luke xxii. 40 and 46). "It behooveth 
always to pray" (Luke xviii. i). 

Prayer is necessary for all men as a means of sal- 
vation. Even were there no special commandment 
to pray, we should be obliged to pray in order to 
obtain the graces and means necessary for our salva- 
tion. We need God's grace for every thought and 
act pertaining to salvation; we are naturally weak 
and prone to evil, and can not of ourselves keep all 
the commandments of God. For this we need His 
special assistance, which, in the ordinary course of 
His providence, He grants only to those who pray 
for it, because He will not force His graces on the 
unwilling, and those who really want them will 
surely ask for them. 

Prayer is necessary for the good, for the just, as 
well as for the sinner. "After baptism," says St. 
Thomas, "continual prayer is necessary for man 
that he may enter heaven." The just man can not 
practice virtue without prayer, for, says St. John 
Climacus, "prayer is the source of all virtue ; it is 
the channel through which flow to us all Christ's 
graces and all divine gifts ; it is the best and most 
indispensable means of advancing in virtue." 

The just man, although he is in the grace of God, 
is nevertheless naturally weak, prone to evil, and be- 



314 Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 

set with many temptations from the world and the 
devil, and especially from his own passions. He can 
not escape temptation, and without God's assistance 
he can not overcome it. St. John Chrysostom says : 
''As water is required to keep plants from withering, 
so also prayer is necessary to preserve us from de- 
struction. As fire is quenched by water, so are our 
passions extinguished by prayer." 

The same misfortune will befall the just man who 
neglects to pray in time of temptation as befell St. 
Peter when he failed to pray according to Our 
Saviour's injunction. St. Peter loved Our Lord 
truly and dearly, and, we may say, with a greater 
love than that of any of the other apostles. And 
nevertheless he basely denied his divine Master 
thrice, and not only did he deny Him, but he even 
swore with fearful imprecations that he knew Him 
not. How came it that he fell so low, so deeply ? It 
was because he neglected prayer. 

At the Last Supper our divine Saviour foretold 
to His apostles that they would all abandon Him 
that night, saying: "You will all be scandalized in 
My regard to-night.'' "But Peter saith to Him : 
Although all shall be scandalized in Thee, yet not L 
And Jesus saith to him : Amen I say to thee, to-day, 
even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou 
shalt deny Me thrice. But Peter spoke the more 
vehemently : Although I should die together with 
Thee, I will not deny Thee" (Mark xiv. 27-31) . St. 
Peter was very sincere in his resolution to die with 
Jesus rather than deny Him. But he was weak, 
very weak of himself ; he was warned of this in the 
Garden of Olives, when, not having heeded the in- 
junction of Jesus to watch and pray with Him, he 
was thus spoken to by the loving Saviour : "Watch 
ye and pray, that ye enter not into temptation [that 



Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 315 

is, that ye yield not to temptation] ; the spirit, in- 
deed, is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. xxvi. 
41). St. Peter did not heed this warning; he failed 
to pray, and when the temptation came he was de- 
servedly left to his own weakness and helplessness, 
and denied Our Lord in the most cowardly and 
shocking manner. A sad experience records the fall 
of many formerly holy personages into degrading 
vices, because of their neglect of prayer in time of 
temptation. Had St. Peter prayed, had they prayed, 
God would have given them most efficacious graces 
to cope victoriously wath temptation. The same 
misfortune will happen to us, if we, too, neglect 
prayer in temptation. 

Prayer is also absolutely necessary to obtain the 
most excellent and necessary grace of final perse- 
verance. What will all other graces avail us, if we 
do not obtain that of final perseverance? But we 
need, says the Council of Trent, a special grace of 
God to persevere finally in His friendship and die a 
good death. But this grace can not be merited even 
by the greatest saints. No one can claim a right to 
it. This is a terrible truth ; for many who had a 
long time led a holy life and edified the whole 
Church did not persevere, but fell into sin and died 
in sin ! But that grace of graces — final perseverance, 
which WT can not merit or lay claim to on account 
of previous good w^orks, we can surely obtain, says 
St. Augustine, "by daily prayer." But 'Sve must 
pray for it daily," says St. Alphonsus, "that we may 
obtain it for that day." If we neglect prayer a sin- 
gle day we may fail to obtain it, and may then fall 
into sin and die in sin. But if we pray daily for 
perseverance, v^^ shall most assuredly obtain it, ac- 
cording to the Saviour's promise. 

"All the reprobate," says St. Alphonsus, "have 



3i6 Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 

been lost in consequence of their neglect of prayer ; 
and all the saints have become saints by prayer ; had 
they neglected prayer, they could not have become 
saints and should not even be saved. I would wish 
to do nothing else than write and speak always on 
this great means of prayer ; for, on the one hand, I 
see that the Scriptures, the Old as well as the New 
Testament, exhort us so often to pray, to ask and 
cry out if we wish for the divine graces. 'Cry to 
Me, and I will hear thee' (Jer. xxxiii. 3). 'Call on 
Me, and I will deliver thee' (Ps. xlix. 15). 'All 
things whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe 
that you shall receive, and they shall come unto you' 
(Mark xi. 24). 'You shall ask whatever you will, 
and it shall be done unto you' (John xv. 7). 'If you 
shall ask Me anything in My name, that I will do' 
(John xiv. 14). There are a thousand similar pas- 
sages. I know not how the Lord could better de- 
clare His desire to bestow His graces upon us, or 
the necessity we are under of asking them if we wish 
to obtain them. The holy Fathers also continually 
exhort us to pray. And to speak the truth, 1 com- 
plain of preachers, of confessors and spiritual 
writers, because I see that neither preachers, nor 
confessors, nor spiritual writers speak as much as 
they ought of the great means of prayer. I have, 
therefore, written at length on this subject in so 
many of my little works ; and when I preach I do 
nothing else than say and repeat : Pray ! pray ! if you 
wish to be saved." 

Prayer, as we have seen, is both easy and effec- 
tive ; and, nevertheless, numerous are the complaints 
that our prayers are not heard. St. James thus an- 
swers these complaints : "You ask and receive not, 
because you ask amiss" (James iv. 3). St. Augus- 
tine says that there are three principal reasons why 



Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 317 

our prayers are not granted by God. Some people, 
he says, are unfit to be heard when they pray, be- 
cause, far from being agreeable to God, they are 
hateful to Him. Others are refused what they pray 
for, because they ask for unsuitable and even for 
dangerous things. Others, finally, are not heard be- 
cause their prayers lack some of the qualities of a 
good prayer. We should pray for temporal favors 
conditionally — that is, under the condition that they 
either promote our salvation, or at least do not inter- 
fere with it ; for we should never lose sight of this 
saying of Our Lord : "What doth it profit a man, if 
he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his 
soul?'' (Matt. xvi. 26.) 

''God,'' says St. Alphonsus, speaking on this sub- 
ject, ''has pledged Himself to grant us, not temporal, 
but spiritual goods, goods necessary or conducive to 
our salvation ; for we can not ask 'in the name of 
Jesus' for what is or may prove hurtful to our salva- 
tion. God does not and can not grant it. Why? 
Because He loves us. A physician who has any re- 
gard for his patient will not permit him things which 
he knows will prove injurious to him. Many people 
ask for health or riches, but God does not give them, 
because He foresees that they will be an occasion of 
sin or of tepidity in His service. When we ask for 
temporal favors, we ought always to add this condi- 
tion — if they are profitable to our souls. And when 
we see that God does not give them, let us rest as- 
sured that He refuses them only because He loves 
us, and because He sees that w^hat we ask would, if 
He were to give them to us, redound to our spiritual 
injury." 

The prayers of many persons are not heard be- 
cause they are wanting in some of the necessary 
qualities of a good prayer, namely, attention, sincer- 



3i8 Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 

ity, humility, confidence, perseverance, and earnest- 
ness. Our confidence in God should be boundless. 
He is our most generous benefactor, our most lov- 
ing Father. He has already conferred numberless 
benefits on us without any merit or prayer of ours. 
Every moment of our life is marked by His renewed 
favors toward us. He loves us with a love greater 
than that of a loving mother for her own darling 
child, for He says : *'Can a woman forget her in- 
fant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? 
And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee" 
(Is. xlix. 15). God has solemnly promised to grant 
us whatsoever graces we ask; and, being almighty, 
He is able to grant us all, and even far more than we 
can ask. He is so willing to bestow His favors on 
us that He complains of our not asking Him for 
them : ''Hitherto,'' He says, 'Sou have not asked 
anything in My name ; ask, and you shall receive, 
that your joy may be full" (John xvi. 24). God 
even commands us to ask Him for His favors : ''Ask, 
and you shall receive." 

As a pledge of His love for us, God has gone so 
far as to give us His own beloved Son. "He that 
spared not even His own Son," says St. Paul, "but 
delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also 
with Him given us all things?" (Rom. viii. 32.) 
"In prayer," says St. Anselm, "we speak with God. 
How attentively and reverentially should we speak 
with the Lord of lords! How humbly with the Su- 
preme Judge, and how confidently with our best 
Friend and Benefactor !" "We have every reason 
to pray with confidence," says St. Peter Chrysolo- 
gus ; "for what will not God give to those who ask 
Him, since He already gives so much to those who 
do not ask Him?" "Our confidence," says St. Ber- 
nard, "is the measure of the graces which we obtain 



Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 319 

in prayer. If our confidence in God is great, we 
shall receive great graces; if it is little, we shall 
receive but little." If God has hitherto sparingly 
bestowed His graces on us, it was owing in a great 
measure to our little confidence in Him during 
prayer. Our prayer must be persevering. ''God,'' 
says St. Gregory the Great, "wishes us so to pray to 
Him as to overcome Him by our importunities." He 
usually defers granting our prayers, first, that we 
may the better prove our confidence in Him by per- 
severing in our request; secondly, that we may de- 
sire His favors more earnestly and appreciate them 
so much the more ; and thirdly, that we may not for- 
get Him, for were He to grant at once what we ask, 
we should be liable not to pray any more to Him un- 
til we want some other favor. ''God defers hearing 
our prayers," says St. John Chrysostom, "not be- 
cause He rejects them, but because He wishes to 
contrive to draw us to Him. Do not leave ofif 
praying until you are heard." 

When He had taught the "Our Father," our di- 
vine Saviour related the following parable : "Which 
of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at 
midnight, and shall say to him : Friend, lend me 
three loaves ; because a friend of mine is come off 
bis journey to me, and I have not what to set before 
him. And he from within should answer and say : 
Trouble me not ; the door is now shut, and my chil- 
dren are with me in bed; I can not rise and give 
thee. Yet, if he shall continue knocking, I say to 
you, although he w411 not rise and give him because 
he is his friend, yet, because of his importunity, he 
will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And 
I say to you : x\sk, and it shall be given you ; seek, 
and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to 
you ; for every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he 



320 Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 

that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it 
shall be opened'' (Luke xi. 5-10). The greater and 
more intense our desire to obtain a thing, the more 
persistent we shall be in our efforts to secure it. 

We have a beautiful illustration of this in the Gos- 
pel. ''Jesus departed/' says the Evangelist, ''into 
the confines of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a 
woman of Chanaan who came out of those parts, 
said to Him : Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son 
of David ; my daughter is grievously troubled by a 
devil. But He atiswered her not a word." But she 
was not discouraged, for she followed Our Lord, 
persevering in her prayer, so much so as to cause 
the apostles displeasure by her importunity. "And 
His disciples came and besought Him, saying : Send 
her away, for she crieth after us. And He answer- 
ing, said : I was not sent but to the sheep that are 
lost of the house of Israel." But the woman per- 
sisted, for "she came and worshiped Him, saying: 
Lord, help me. But He answered and said : It is 
not good to take the bread of the children, and to 
cast it to the dogs." This severe rebuke of Our 
Lord did not discourage her, for "she said : Yea, 
Lord, for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall 
from the table of their masters." Her confidence 
and her earnest perseverance in spite of so many re- 
buffs were at last rewarded, for "Jesus answering, 
said to her : O woman, great is thy faith ; be it done 
to thee as thou wilt. And her daughter was cured 
from that hour" (Matt. xv. 21-28). If we also per- 
severe in prayer as she did, we also shall be favor- 
ably heard by God in His own good time. 

A lack of perseverance in prayer argues a lack of 
earnest desire. God, by deferring to hear us, does 
not refuse our prayers, but will even grant us far 
more than we ask. Speaking on this subject, St. 
Jerome says : "God, knowing the weight and meas- 



Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 321 

ure of His goodness, sometimes appears insensible 
to our prayers, in order to try us, to urge us to pray 
more earnestly, and to make us more holy through 
constant prayer." * 

In regard to vocal prayer, as distinct from mental 
prayer. Father Girardey writes if ''Although in itself 
vocal prayer is not so excellent as mental prayer, we 
should, nevertheless, beware of underrating its use- 
fulness or necessity. All true Christians frequently 
recite vocal prayers, such as . the 'Our Father,' 
the 'Hail Mary,' the 'Apostles' Creed,' the acts of 
faith, hope, charity, and contrition. The Church 
prescribes vocal prayer very strictly to her priests 
and her Religious, in the Mass, in the liturgy, and 
in the Divine Office. She has enriched many vocal 
prayers with numerous indulgences, and has ap- 
proved of many prayer-books filled with prayers 
suited to every want and devotion. Vocal prayer, 
then, is both useful and necessary for all men with- 
out exception — even for those who are soaring in 
the heights of contemplation. In reciting vocal 
prayers, we should strive to attend to the meaning 
of the words, appropriating it to ourselves with all 
possible fervor and earnestness. A few short vocal 
prayers well said are far more acceptable to God 
than a great many long ones recited without atten- 
tion or fervor. 

"One of the best forms of vocal prayer is the fre- 
quent recitation during the day of some favorite as- 
piration or ejaculatory prayer, especially if we do so 
in time of trial and temptation. This commendable 
practice gradually imparts a habit of recollection, 
and renders all other prayers comparatively easy 
and free from distraction. We should, as far as 
practicable, prefer reciting those vocal prayers 

*From Popular Instructions on Prayer, by Rev. Ferreol 
Girardey, C.SS.R. ^Ihid. 



322 Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular. 

which the Church has enriched with indulgences, for 
we thereby gain a twofold advantage — the benefit 
of the beautiful and devout prayers themselves, and 
the indulgences, which help us to acquit ourselves 
of the great temporal debt which we have contracted 
toward the divine justice on account of our numer- 
ous sins. Or we may also apply said indulgences, 
when so applicable, to the souls in purgatory, who 
will be relieved thereby and will not fail to intercede 
for us in our wants. 

''It would be well to join, to a certain extent, men- 
tal prayer with our vocal prayers, for the merit of 
the latter would be thereby greatly increased. We 
may do so in this wise. During the recitation of our 
vocal prayers we pause at short intervals to reflect 
either on their meaning or on some supernatural 
truth ; or, without at all pausing, we reflect thereon 
while actually pronouncing the prayers with our 
lips. The Rosary is the most common and readily 
understood example of this manner of praying. 
While we are reciting the 'Our Father' and the 
'Hail Marys' of each decade of the Rosary, we medi- 
tate or reflect on some mystery connected with the 
life of Jesus Christ or of His blessed Mother. 

'Tt is also useful, in using the prayers of our 
prayer-book, to read them slowly and deliberately, 
making in the meantime practical reflections on 
their contents, or pausing from time to time to medi- 
tate a little and apply the words of the prayers to 
our own wants. If we accustom ourselves to recite 
our vocal prayers in this way, we shall not only 
make them our own and pray well, but we shall also 
acquire the habit of making mental prayer, which 
tends to unite us more closely to God, and, through 
the practical imitation of our divine Saviour's vir- 
tues, to render us conformable to Him." 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Cental prai^er or /iReOitatioiu 

j^ HE life of a Religious should be one of continual 
^^ prayer. It is very difficult, yes, it is even im- 
possible for one who does not practice mental prayer 
to be a good Religious. If we behold a tepid Re- 
ligious, we may confidently ascribe her tepidity to 
the want of mental prayer. A soul that does not 
practice mental prayer is, in the first place, without 
light, without illumination of the understanding. 
"He who shuts his eyes," says St. Augustine, "can 
not find the way home." The eternal truths are en- 
tirely spiritual. They can not be discerned by the 
eyes of the body, but by those of the mind, that is, 
by the application of the soul to meditation. He 
who does not meditate does not see, therefore does 
not understand the importance of eternal salvation, 
nor embrace the means that lead thereto. Ah, how 
many are lost because they neglect to meditate upon 
the great business of life here in this exile, upon the 
"one thing necessary," as our blessed Lord termed 
it! "With desolation is all the land made desolate: 
because there is none that considereth in the heart" 
Qer. xii. ii). The Holy Ghost says, on the con- 
trary, that he who has the truths of faith before his 
eyes, namely, death, judgment, hell, and heaven, will 
never sin : "In all thy works remember thy last end, 
and thou shalt never sin" (Ecclus. vii. 40). ''Come 
ye to Him, and be enlightened," says the Psalmist, 
"and your faces shall not be confounded" (Ps. 
xxxiii. 6). And again, our divine Saviour admon- 
ishes us : ''Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning 



324 Mental Prayer or Meditation. 

in your hands'' (Luke xii. 35). These lamps, ac- 
cording to St. Bonaventure's interpretation, are the 
lamps of holy meditation. Prayer illumines the in- 
tellect. God speaks to the soul in prayer, and His 
words are light and strength wherein we securely 
walk in the narrow path that leads to eternal life. 
''Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my 
paths'' (Ps. cxviii. 105). 

St. Bonaventure compares meditation to a mir- 
ror reflecting all the stains of the soul. St. Teresa 
wrote to the Bishop of Ostia : "We may, indeed, flat- 
ter ourselves that we have no imperfections ; but O 
how quickly do we discover them when God opens 
the eyes. of the soul, as He is accustomed to do in 
meditation !" He who does not meditate does not 
know his faults, and consequently does not hate 
them, as St. Bernard remarks : *'He has no fear for 
himself, since he is not aware of his danger.'* 
Meditation discovers faults and the dangers conse- 
quent on them, and with such knowledge comes the 
eager desire of overcoming them. The thought of 
eternity animated King David to the practice of vir- 
tue and to the cleansing of his soul from vice. 'T 
thought upon the days of old, and I had in my mind 
the eternal years. And I meditated in the night with 
my own heart ; and I was exercised, and I swept my 
spirit" (Ps. Ixxvi. 6, 7). The Bridegroom exclaims 
in the Canticles : *'The flowers have appeared in our 
land, the time of pruning is come ; the voice of the 
turtle is heard" (Cant. ii. 12). When the soul re- 
tires into recollection, and speaks to God in prayer, 
in the prayer of the heart, then the flowers of good 
desires spring forth ; harvest-time follows, the cut- 
ting down of the faults which she has discovered by 
her earnest prayer. ''You may think," says St. Ber- 
nard, ''that the harvest has come when it has been 



Mental Prayer or Meditation. 325 

preceded by holy meditation; for meditation puts 
our inclinations in order, guides our actions, and re- 
pairs what has been amiss." 

Secondly, without interior prayer the soul has no 
power to resist her enemies, the powers of darkness, 
or to practice the Christian virtues. Meditation is 
to the soul what fire is to iron. As iron, when cold, 
can not be forged, so the soul without the heat 
of divine love, which is generated by prayer, can 
not be inclined toward God. Subject the iron to the 
fiery furnace and it will soon become malleable and 
may be shaped as the smith pleases. The strokes 
of the hammer make impression on it only when it 
is glowing with heat. To observe the commands 
and counsels of Almighty God the heart must be 
docile and pliable, open to heavenly inspirations, and 
ready to execute them. It was this that King Solo- 
mon begged of God : "Give to Thy servant an un- 
derstanding heart'' (3Kingsiii.9). Man's heart, since 
the fall of our first parents, is dull and hard, inclined 
to sensual pleasures, and opposed to the law of the 
spirit, as the Apostle laments : ''But I see another 
law in my members, fighting against the law of my 
mind" (Rom. vii. 23). By prayer, by meditation, 
man becomes enlightened. Divine grace finds him 
ready. His heart becomes softened, obstinacy and 
disobedience disappear, and he is saved. ''A hard 
heart shall fear evil at the last; and he that loveth 
danger shall perish in it" (Ecclus. iii. 27). After 
Eugenius had become Pope, St. Bernard admon- 
ished him never, for the sake of business afifairs, to 
neglect his meditation. 'T fear very much for you, 
my Eugenius, that, if you neglect meditation, the 
number of your exterior afifairs may harden your 
heart, which then would become insensible to divine 
inspirations." 



326 Mental Prayer or Meditation. 

Many may think prolonged prayer a loss of time, 
which might be put to greater profit in good works, 
in deeds of charity. But let them reflect that it 
is only in prayer that the soul gains strength to con- 
quer vice and to practice virtue. ''From such 
leisure comes strength," says St. Bernard. The 
Lord Himself ordered that His spouse should not be 
roused from her slumbers. 'T adjure you, O 
daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of 
the fields, that you stir not up, nor wake My be- 
loved, till she please" (Cant. iii. 5). Rouse her not 
until she herself wills it ; for the holy rest, or sleep, 
that the soul tastes in mental prayer, although quite 
voluntary, is necessary to the spiritual life. Loss 
of sleep produces loss of strength. Without sleep a 
man can neither labor nor travel far. He will fall by 
the wayside. The soul that does not rest in prayer 
and, consequently, draw her strength from it, will 
not be in a state to do good or to resist temptation. 
She will soon fall in the way. St. Teresa, that great 
authority on mental prayer, says : "He who gives up 
mental prayer needs no devil to cast him into hell ; 
for he plunges himself into it." 

Almighty God does not give us His grace unless 
we ask for it ; and without the help of that grace we 
can not keep the commandments. Full of this 
thought, St. Paul admonishes his disciples : 'Tray 
without ceasing" (i Thess. v. 17). We are poor 
beggars. "But I am a beggar and poor; the Lord 
is careful for me" (Ps. xxxix. 18). The income of 
the poor depends on the alms of the rich. Our spir- 
itual income, that is, the gifts and graces of our 
good God, must be obtained by frequent and hum- 
ble supplication. St. Chrysostom assures us that 
without prayer it is absolutely impossible to live a 
virtuous life. God desires nothing more than to lav- 



Mental Prayer or Meditation. 327 

ish upon us His graces, but He must be petitioned 
for them. He must, as it were, be forced to give 
them to us by our prayer. 

From this indispensable necessity of prayer 
springs the moral necessity for meditation. The 
man who never reflects, who lives constantly dis- 
tracted by the diverse affairs of this world, can 
scarcely be alive* to his spiritual needs and the dan- 
gers that threaten his soul. He is, consequently, 
ignorant of what means to employ to overcome 
temptation. As he does not know the necessity of 
prayer, he does not exercise it; and without prayer 
he will infallibly be lost. To this some one may re- 
ply : *T do not make meditation, it is true, but I say 
many vocal prayers." To such a one St. Augustine 
makes answ^er : "We must petition for grace not 
only with the lips, but also with the heart.'/ On 
these words of David, 'T cried to the Lord with my 
voice : with my voice I made supplication to the 
Lord" (Ps. cxli. 2), the saint remarks: ''Many cry 
to the Lord wnth the voice of the lips, but not with 
that of the heart. Your thoughts are a cry to the 
Lord. Cry interiorly, for God hears you." It is to 
this that the Apostle admonishes us when he says : 
''By all prayer and supplication, praying at all times 
in the spirit" (Ephes. vi. 18). Vocal prayer is 
generally full of distractions when performed by 
one unaccustomed to meditation, and' when it lasts 
long. God does not hear such prayer, and the 
favors it asks are rarely granted. A man may recite 
the Rosary, or the Little Office of the Blessed 
Virgin, or perform many other devotions, and yet 
continue in the state of mortal sin. But for one 
who meditates it is utterly impossible to perse- 
vere in sin, because he must of necessity give up 
either prayer or sin. "Meditation and sin can not 



328 Mental Prayer or Meditation. 

exist together/' says a great servant of God. Expe- 
rience teaches this. The soul that diligently medi- 
tates rarely falls into disgrace with Almighty God. 
Should she be so unhappy as to do so, she will soon 
rise and return again to God, provided she does not 
relax in her meditation. St. Teresa says that the Lord 
will surely pilot the soul that has become negligent 
into the haven of salvation, if she cfnly perseveres in 
mental prayer. In one word, it was by such prayer 
that all the saints sanctified themselves. It is the 
blessed furnace in which souls are inflamed by di- 
vine love. ''My heart grew hot within me : and in 
my meditation a fire shall flame out" (Ps. xxxviii. 
4). He to whom the soul speaks in mental prayer 
is Almighty God Himself. 'T will lead her into the 
wilderness : and I will speak to her heart'' (Osee ii. 
14) . She who does not practice interior prayer is not 
imited to God. It will not be hard for Satan to win 
her for his own, since he finds her alone and without 
help against his machinations. How can the love of 
God live in the soul that neglects to commune with 
Him in prayer? Where, except in meditation, in 
mental prayer, were the saints inflamed with divine 
love ? St. Peter of Alcantara was so filled with love 
during his interior communing with God that he 
once sprang into the icy waters of a pond to cool the 
ardor of the fire that was consuming him. St. 
Aloysius Gonzaga was so inflamed with divine love 
when he made his meditation that his countenance 
appeared to be on fire, and his throbbing heart 
seemed about to leap from his breast. ''Meditation," 
writes St. Laurence Justinian, "puts the tempter to 
flight, drives away sadness, restores lost virtue, en- 
kindles devotion, intensifies divine charity." Very 
true is the saying of St. Aloysius Gonzaga that 
without frequent and earnest meditation or men- 



Mental Prayer or Meditation. 329 

tal prayer one will never attain a high degree of 
virtue. 

The soul that practices meditation, according to 
the Royal Prophet, is like a tree planted by the run- 
ning water. It flourishes and brings forth fruit in 
due time. ''Blessed is the man who hath not walked 
in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way 
of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. But his 
will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall 
meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree 
which is planted near the running waters, which 
shall bring forth its fruit in due season. And his 
leaf shall not fall oflf : and all whatsoever he shall do, 
shall prosper" (Ps. i. 1-3). Let us mark the words : 
"It brings forth its fruit in due time,'' which means 
at the time that he has some trial, some sorrow, 
some contempt to endure. St. Chrysostom com- 
pares meditation to a fountain gushing in the midst 
of a garden. Just as a garden that is freely watered 
brings forth an abundance of flowers and foliage, so 
does the soul that meditates present to the eyes of 
God the pleasing sight of ever increasing virtues. 
Her holy desires and aspirations are constantly as- 
cending like a sweet odor to heaven. But whence 
has she received the first seeds of good? From 
meditation, which daily sheds fruitful dew on 
her heart. ''Thy plants are a paradise of pome- 
granates with the fruits of the orchard. . . . 
The fountain of gardens, the well of living waters, 
which run with a strong stream from Libanus'' 
(Cant. iv. 13-15). If the fountains of the garden 
were to dry up, the flowers and foliage would soon 
wither for lack of water. 

So it is with the soul. As long as it meditates, we 
find in it charity, modesty, humility, and mortifica- 
tion. But let mental prayer be neglected, and vanity, 



330 Mental Prayer or Meditation. 

frivolity, love of ease and worldly pleasures, want of 
recollection and devotion, neglect of mortification — 
all these are the result. Water is w^anting, the spirit 
is dried up. ''My soul is as earth without water unto 
thee" (Ps. cxlii. 6). The poor soul has forsaken 
mental prayer, and the garden of her heart is 
parched. It grows dryer and harder day by day. 
St. Chrysostom looks upon such a soul as not only 
sick, but even lifeless. ''He who no longer prays to 
God," he says, "who no longer desires constant com- 
munion with Him, is dead." When the soul ceases 
to kneel in prayer before God, she dies. 

"Meditation," says the same holy teacher, "is the 
root of the fruit-bearing vine." "Meditation," St. 
John Climacus writes, "is a bulwark against tribu- 
lation, a fountain of virtues, a channel of divine 
grace." Rufinus maintains that all the advance- 
ment of a soul comes from mental prayer, and 
Gerson declares that he who does not make in- 
terior prayer can not, without a miracle on the 
part of Almighty God, lead a Christian life. St. 
Ignatius of Loyola says, "Meditation is the shortest 
road to perfection." He who makes great progress 
in mental prayer makes great progress, also, in per- 
fection. It is in the time of meditation that the soul 
is replenished with holy thoughts, devout aspira- 
tions and desires, good resolutions, and most fervent 
love of God. It is then that she lays on the altar of 
sacrifice all her passions, all her sinful thoughts, her 
lingering attachments to the world, all that flatters 
self-love. We can, moreover, in our meditation, 
gain the merit of many good desires though they 
never be carried into effect ; for God rewards every 
good desire just as He punishes every evil one. 

Let us remark, above all, that we must not medi- 
tate with the design of receiving sweetness and con- 



Mental Prayer or Meditation, 331 

solation, but only to please God, and to learn from 
Him how best to love and serve Him. Father 
Alvarez says that the love of God does not consist 
m consolation, but in the faithful and disinterested 
fulfilment of His commands. He adds that divine 
comfort is like the refreshment which the traveler 
takes on his journey, not to delay his progress, but 
that he may go forward more briskly. If we suffer 
from want of consolation in prayer, and yet perse- 
vere in it bravely, although against our inclination, 
we may be sure that we are very pleasing to the 
Saviour, and that we are accumulating merit. ''O 
my good Jesus,'' we may cry out in our desolation, 
'Svhy dost Thou act thus toward me? Thou hast 
deprived me of all things, of my possessions, my 
relatives, my acquaintances, and my will, so dear 
to me. I have not hesitated to bid adieu to them 
all in order to gain Thee. But why dost Thou 
deprive me of the consolation of feeling that Thou 
art near me?'' Let us address Him in this way, but 
in the spirit of humility and resignation, for He will 
then make us understand that all that He does is for 
love of us, that He wills what is best for us. 

We must not neglect prayer if in it we are 
tortured by all kinds of thoughts and temptations. 
We must remember that it is at just such times, and 
under just such pretences of inability to pray, that 
tepidity and indolence slip in. Such thoughts must 
be banished as the Patriarch Abraham drove away 
the birds that settled over the sacrifice (Gen. xv. 
11). We must do simply what lies in our power, 
and then trouble ourselves no further. Our blessed 
Lady once appeared to St. Bridget when the latter 
was quite worn out by the temptations that had as- 
sailed her in the time of prayer, and thus addressed 
her: ''The devil, envious of man's welfare, tries to 



33^ Mental Prayer or Meditation. 

raise all kinds of hindrances to his prayer. But you, 
my daughter, when tortured by even the most 
abominable temptations, when you think yourself 
unable to free yourself from them, persevere firmly 
in your good will and holy desires. That will 
render your prayer excellent and very meritorious 
before God." On the other hand, ''when,'' as 
St. Jane Frances says, ''in prayer, we find ourselves 
touched with some holy afifection, it is not the time 
to multiply reflections, but to stop, address one's 
self to God in words of compunction, of love, 
of abandonment, according as the inclination may 
move us. This is the best kind of prayer." 

St. Cyril shows by comparison how one should 
meditate. "How does one act who would strike a 
light ? He takes a flint and strikes the stone with a 
steel until the fire ignites whatever he wishes it to fall 
upon. In like manner he who meditates should seek 
by considerations and reflections to touch the heart 
and to inflame it with the fire of divine charity." 

St. Teresa says : "It is very salutary to occupy 
one's self during prayer in making acts of praise and 
of the love of God ; to form a desire and a firm pur- 
pose to please Him in all things; to rejoice in His 
goodness because He is sovereign perfection ; to 
wish that all would render Him the honor and glory 
He deserves ; to recommend one's self to His mercy ; 
to place one's self simply before Him, admiring His 
grandeur, humbling one's self at the sight of one's 
miseries, then to be indififerent as to what He sends 
us, be it consolations or dryness, convinced that He 
knows what is best for us. Holy aflfections should 
be excited in us. The great point is to love much." 

St. Francis de Sales says : "Those souls who are 
not solidly established in piety walk bravely and are 
content when Our Lord gives them consolations 



Mental Prayer or Meditation. 2)3tZ 

during prayer; but if He deprives them of these, 
they are discontented — like little children who thank 
their mother when she gives them. sweets, and cry 
when she takes them away, not knowing they are 
dangerous when taken in large quantities. Sensi- 
ble consolations engender complacency. This com- 
placency gives birth to pride, which is the poison of 
the soul and corrupts every good work. Our 
Saviour lavishes spiritual consolations when we en- 
ter the way of piety in order to attract us to Him ; 
afterwards He deprives us of them to try us and 
lest they might become hurtful to us. Ought we 
not thank Him as well when He takes them from us 
as when He gives them to us V 

St. John Berchmans experienced at times, while 
in prayer, inexpressible sweetness ; but he had also 
days on which his soul was plunged in the greatest 
dryness. He never lost courage nor became dis- 
quieted when in this state. ''The whole care of 
those who give themselves to the exercise of 
prayer,'' says St. Teresa, ''should be to conform 
their will to that of God. In this consists the great- 
est perfection we can acquire here below." To con- 
form in all things to the will of God w^as the prin- 
cipal object of all the prayers of this great saint. 

St. Bernard addressed himiself to God in the be- 
ginning of all his prayers as follows : "My God, I 
offer Thee this prayer that I may know how to 
please Thee in all things ; that I may know and do 
Thy holy will !'' As these saints have prayed, 
so let us pray : Lord, grant that I may know and 
do Thy will. It is not sweetness I seek, but Thy 
good pleasure. Dispose of me as Thou pleasest. 
Give me but Thy love and Thy grace; I desire 
nothing more. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

XLbc Ifmportance of /ifteMtatlon* 

ISoofes antr il^et!)ot»s at il^etritatfon, 

*''~p^APPY is the man/' says the Royal Prophet, 
'-'^^ ''who meditates day and night upon the 
law of the Lord. He shall be like a tree that is 
planted by the river side, which brings forth its fruit 
in season." In meditation the Religious walks with 
God ; by means of meditation she is filled with 
Christ, and by contemplating Him in her own soul 
she is made capable of communicating Him to other 
souls. Sanctifying herself she is able to sanctify 
others, and to do the work of God in union with the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. Paul, writing to 
Timothy, says: ''Attend unto reading; neglect not 
the grace that is in thee. Meditate upon these 
things, be wholly in these things, that thy profit- 
ing may be manifest to alF' (i Tim. iv. 13, 

"Meditation/' says St. Augustine, "is the begin- 
ning and end of all good," and if this be true of a 
Christian generally, how much more must it be true 
of the Religious? The Lord is the portion of the 
Religious, the Lord is her inheritance, and in order 
that the value of that inheritance may be appreciated 
it must be known. Our divine Lord repeatedly in- 
vites us to acquire this knowledge of Him. "Taste 
and see that the Lord is sweet." "Take My yoke 
upon you, for My yoke is sweet and My burden 



The Importance of Meditation. 335 

light." ''Come to Me, all you that labor and are 
heavily burdened, and I will refresh you." ''Medi- 
tation," writes Father Godwin, *'alone can make God 
known to us. In meditation we come to learn what 
God is in Himself and in what relation v/e stand to 
Him. We acquire a knowledge of the divine attri- 
butes, and that knowledge excites in us deep feelings 
of awe and admiration for the divine majesty. 
Prayer of adoration follows spontaneously on these 
sentiments. We learn how good God is in Him- 
self, and how He has manifested His goodness 
toward us. Creation, the Incarnation of the Son of 
God, and all the sacred mysteries connected with it, 
Redemption, grace, the eternal bliss of heaven, are 
evidences of the divine bounty. In the contempla- 
tion of these great truths we live and walk with God, 
and are always with Him. Prayers of praise, of 
gratitude, of love flow naturally from our souls de- 
lighted with the vision of God which we attain in 
His contemplation. 

"From this picture we turn to another, and here 
at once very different feelings are aroused within 
us. We look upon ourselves, and in the light of 
God's majesty and greatness we are overwhelmed 
at the sight of our own contemptible littleness ; we 
behold our many infirmities ; we see the terrible 
heinousness of our continual offences committed 
against the Infinite God. At first an awful fear 
seizes upon us ; but under the benign influence of 
grace that servile fear changes into a heartfelt sor- 
row, and this sorrow breaks forth into a prayer for 
pardon, and as, suing for pardon, we lift our eyes 
again to the former vision of God, there steals into 
our hearts a firm feeling of assurance, and this as- 
surance displays itself in a prayer of hope and con- 
fidence. Closely upon this prayer follows the prayer 



336 The Importance of Meditation, 

of trust in God by which, full of diffidence in our- 
selves, we cast all our care on Him, who alone hath 
care of us. Resignation to God's holy will is the 
fruit of that prayer and completes the union of the 
soul with God, and sets right our relations with 
Him." 

Who shall calculate the importance to the Re- 
ligious of the faithful performance of this duty? 
Her sacred calling demands of her a corresponding 
degree of sanctity. The prayer of meditation is the 
response we make to our divine Master's loving in- 
vitation : ''Come to Me, all you that labor and are 
heavily burdened, and I will refresh you !" The in- 
vitation perpetually perseveres. If the Religious 
daily responds to it ; if day by day she reverts to one 
or other of the considerations mentioned above, grad- 
ually going through them all, and repeating year by 
year the cycle of meditations from God to herself, 
and from herself again back to God, her soul will 
be refreshed, the supernatural life will be vigorous 
in her, and wull impart its vigor to all the 
prayers and actions of the day. Meditation will not 
be restricted to the half-hour devoted directly to it ; 
it will quicken to life all the spiritual exercises. The 
holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be heard with greater 
recollection and a deeper sense of the presence of 
God, for she will kneel before the altar with her 
soul steeped in that presence. The recital of the 
Divine Office will not be open to that bitter com- 
plaint of the Almighty to His prophet : ''This people 
honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far 
from Me." Spontaneously the thoughts of the Re- 
ligious will turn toward God and the things of God. 
Her life will show that which Archbishop Ulla- 
thorne calls the chief feature of the supernatural 
life, namely, that she is always with God. As the 



The Importance of Meditation. 2i2>7 

Royal Psalmist says : ''I remembered the days of 
old, I meditated on all Thy works : I mused upon 
the works of Thy hands. Cause me to hear Thy 
mercy in the morning; for in Thee have I hoped. 
Make the way known to me wherein I should walk ; 
for I have Hfted up my soul to Thee" ( Ps. cxlii. 5, 8) . 

As we read in The Crown of Jesus: "We can medi- 
tate when we sit in the house ; when we walk on the 
way ; when we lie down ; when we rise up. We can 
mxcditate by considering all earthly things as types 
of holy truths. In trees, the wood of the cross, our 
Redemption ; in dust, our origin. In the sky, heaven 
our reward. In the stars, the heavenly mansions of 
those who by their glorious deeds have brought 
many to justice. In the moon, the Queen of heaven. 
In the sun, the Son of justice. In the sea, the ocean 
of eternity. In the waves, the progress of time. In 
the seashore covered with the waters, our mortality. 
In the footmarks on the sand erased, fame. In the 
sudden darkness, mortal sin. In the bright light, 
God's grace. In the gentle wind, the breath of the 
Holy Ghost the Comforter. In bread, the Blessed 
Sacrament, the true Bread of life. In water, the 
cleansing grace of baptism. In oil, the anointing of 
the young and of the sick. In the sound of the 
clock, the irrevocable progress of time. 

''We can meditate by adoring the presence of God 
all around us, as we walk in the midst of Him, or as 
causing by His Presence in each object we behold, 
its continued existence and its qualities of good. 
We can adore God in the center of our heart, dwell- 
ing there as in a temple, and by a spiritual union 
uniting to Himself the soul in grace. 

"We meditate by reading slowly , devoutly , a spirit- 
ual book, with pious affections and practical reso- 
lutions. We meditate by contemplating with true 



S3^ The Importance of Meditation. 

dispositions the image of the crucifix, or the taber- 
nacle over the altar where, in His sacramental pres- 
ence, our sweetest Jesus reposes. We meditate by 
hearing the holy Mass, uniting ourselves with Jesus 
in His sacrifice. We meditate while we devoutly 
make the stations of the cross, or recite the holy 
Rosary in honor of the mysteries. We meditate 
when we interiorly consider and apply to our soul's 
need each petition of the 'Pater/ or other prayer. 
We meditate when we reverently contemplate in 
others the type of God's mercy or power." 

Meditation in general, and mental prayer in the 
morning especially, is a duty incumbent on the Re- 
ligious, the importance of which can not be exag- 
gerated. St. Alphonsus Liguori admonishes us : 
"Take care to make half an hour's meditation as 
soon as possible in the day. For though meditation 
is not absolutely necessary, it is morally necessary, 
in order to obtain the grace of perseverance. Those 
who neglect it will find great difficulty in perse- 
vering in the grace of God. The reasons for this 
are twofold : the first is, because the eternal truths 
can not be seen by the eyes of the flesh, but only by 
the eye of the understanding, which is reflection. 
Hence he does not perceive them who does not medi- 
tate ; and for want of perceiving them he will hardly 
arrive at a due appreciation of the importance of 
salvation, of the means which secure it, and of the 
obstacles which hinder it ; so that his salvation will 
be placed in imminent risk. The second reason is, 
because the soul that does not practice meditation 
will also be backward in practicing prayer. Now, 
prayer is necessary not merely as a precept, but as a 
means to observe the commandments, since, as a 
general rule, and speaking of adults, God only gives 
His grace to those who ask for it. But without 



The Importance of Meditation. 339 

meditation a person has a very faint notion of his 
own spiritual wants, and he is, moreover, but 
sHghtly impressed with the necessity of praying, in 
order to overcome temptations and to save his soul : 
thus he is led to pray but little or not at all, and for 
want of prayer is eventually lost/' St. Teresa de- 
clares that it is hardly possible for one who prays 
to remain long in sin ; he will either forsake prayer 
6v forsake sin; prayer and sin are incompatible. 

Father Godwin continues : ''The principle of the 
spiritual life that 'unless we go forward we shall go 
backward' applies especially to prayer. Almighty 
God does not call all men to equal heights of prayer 
and contemplation, but from those to whom more is 
given, more wnll be expected. Now assuredly the 
priest (or the Religious) is bound to acknowledge 
that many talents have been given to him, and he is 
bound in consequence to recognize the duty of trad- 
ing with those talents and of increasing them. 

'Tt is not of course necessary, nor would it be ad- 
visable, to endeavor to measure with mathematical 
precision our progress in meditation, but every man 
w^ho is faithful to that duty will be able to discern 
this much, that he is not going back, that he is at- 
taining greater control over his wandering imagina- 
tion, that acts of soul flow more spontaneously and 
more fervently upon the pious considerations made ; 
in one word, that mental prayer is generally easier. 

'T say 'generally easier,' because periods of spirit- 
ual desolation, due to ill health, to some infidelity, or 
to a trial from God, will at times seem to cast us 
back upon the stage of our earliest efforts. These 
exceptional periods must be carefully distinguished 
from our usual habits of prayer, when, in our ex- 
amination of conscience, w^e apply to ourselves the 
ascetical principle of continued progress. 



340 The Importance of Meditation. 

"1 have said that continued fidelity to the duty of 
meditation makes that prayer easier. I will go fur- 
ther. Under the influence of divine grace, the very 
character of that prayer is changed, and according 
to the natural tendency and disposition of souls it is 
raised to higher levels of prayer. One soul is ar- 
rested in its glance at truth, and dimly resembles 
in its calm repose the cherubim who stand in silent 
contemplation before the throne of God. The truth 
penetrates through and through the soul and is 
gradually assimilated by it, and lives with its life. 
Another soul, like to the burning seraphim before 
the great white throne, is made aglow with the heat 
of divine love that is excited in it by one glance at 
the ravishing beauty of the divine truth contem- 
plated. Both begin by the prayer of meditation, 
and ascetical writers counsel them always so to be- 
gin, but the one is soon raised to the sublime prayer 
of contemplation, the other is carried away by his 
thought; he ceases to contemplate, and continues to 
pour out the most fervent acts from his burning 
soul. The latter is called affective prayer. 

"It follows naturally from this that such gifted 
souls will choose for their mental prayer subjects 
that are congruous to their advanced spiritual state. 
It will not be necessary for them to confine them- 
selves with the major et segnior pars to subjects 
proper to the purgative and elementary illuminative 
way. Theirs is the advanced illuminative and ele- 
mentary unitive way, and they must be guided by 
this knowledge in the choice of subjects for mental 
prayer. 

'The above will suffice as a description of the 
principal forms of higher mental prayer. We will 
now proceed to the consideration of the act of medi- 
tation properly so called. 



The Importance of Meditation. 341 

''Meditation is the lowest form of mental prayer. 
It calls into play the three powers of the soul, and, 
to some extent, the senses also. The work of the 
senses and of the memory is, however, prelimi- 
nary ; the essential acts are those of the intellect and 
the will. The intellect ponders the truth or the sub- 
ject of the meditation, whatever it may be, not for 
the mere purpose of study or speculation, but with 
a view to stirring the will to acts corresponding to 
the nature of the contemplation. 'Contemplatio in 
affectum terjninatttr/ says St. Thomas. The two 
are essential, but the acts of the will form the more 
important element. The pondering is a means to an 
end, and as soon as that end is attained and as long 
as that end perseveres, so long must the pondering 
be discarded, and only resumed when it is necessary 
to arouse again the flagging energy of the will. 
Many distractions at prayer arise from the some- 
times fascinating desire to carry a truth to its far- 
ofif logical conclusion, or to solve a deep problem 
that thrusts itself before our notice. If we indulge 
these inclinations, we at once cease meditation and 
commence study. 

''From this it follows that that system of medita- 
tion will be the best to adopt which furnishes con- 
siderations that will most easily captivate the atten- 
tion of the mind, and that at the same time are not so 
engrossing as to hinder the speedy and spontaneous 
breaking forth of the will into appropriate acts. 

"The Venerable Louis of Grenada in his treatise 
on meditation counsels the use of some method for 
that prayer. He, however, leaves each one free to 
adopt the method which suits him best, and which 
will best prevent him from becoming mechanical. 
Let him take some prayer — say, the 'Lord's Prayer,' 
or the 'Hail Mary ;' let him go through it phrase by 



342 The Importance of Meditation. 

phrase, dwelling on those words into which the 
Spirit of God gives him an insight. Or, let him take 
any three consecutive points, or events ; ponder each 
one, until he feels his heart glow within him ; let him 
then cease to think, but give expression in acts to 
the feelings of his heart. There will be no necessity 
to pass on to the other points of the meditation so 
long as the first remains sufficient incentive to these 
acts of the soul. In the use of this simple method it 
is quite a mistake to regard the consideration of all 
three points as at all necessary to the completeness 
of the meditation. 

'Tn times of special personal need or distress, or 
on the recurrence of some feast toward which we 
may have special devotion, this method will be of 
great practical utility. In the preparation of our 
meditation we shall easilv be able to discover for 
,ourselves three aspects of the virtue or grace 
needed, or of the feasts tow^ard which we have 
special devotion ; whereas we might find it impos- 
sible to meet with any book or treatment of the sub- 
ject that we could so readily adopt, and so easily 
apply to ourselves. 

''The Ignatian method prescribes the use of all 
the three powers of the soul, and also of the imagi- 
nation. This latter faculty is employed in setting 
before us a realistic picture or scene for the com- 
position of place ; for example, the stable at Bethle- 
hem, the scene at Christ's baptism in the Jordan, the 
bleak wilderness where He was tempted : the shores 
of the lake of Genesareth, etc. The memory recalls 
the events which took place, the persons present, 
their actions, words, etc. ; the intellect ponders each 
in turn ; and the w411 breaks forth into the different 
acts that the contemplation calls forth. This system 
differs only in the elaborateness of its setting forth 



The Importance of Meditation. 343 

from that last mentioned. Its very elaborateness 
makes it most useful to some orderly and methodi- 
cal minds, helping them to avoid distractions and 
a general vagueness and want of point in their 
meditation. 

"The golden rule to follow is to find out by expe- 
rience that method of meditation which suits us best, 
and adopt it. Nevertheless, it will be well from 
time to time, and especially after several futile at- 
tempts at meditation according to our fixed method, 
to make trial of some other approved one.'' — In the 
Prayer-Book for Religions the Ignatian, the Sul- 
pician, and Bishop Bellord's methods of meditation 
are fully explained. 

St. Alphonsus Liguori renders the practice of 
mental prayer exceedingly simple, clear, easy, and 
fruitful. The meditation has three parts : Prepara- 
tion, Consideration and Conclusion. In the prepara- 
tion must be made three acts: i, An act of faith in 
the presence of God; 2, An act of humility and 
contrition ; 3, An act of petition for light. 

Say a ''Hail Mary" to the divine Mother, and 
a ''Glory be to the Father" in honor of our angel 
guardian and of our holy patron. Then read a point 
of the meditation, and be sure to meditate, at least 
occasionally, on the Passion of Jesus Christ. While 
reading, stop at the passages which strike you the 
most. It must also be understood that the fruit of 
prayer does not so much consist in meditating, but 
rather in producing: i. Affections, for instance of 
humility, confidence, love, sorrow, offering, resigna- 
tion, etc. ; 2, Prayers, and especially prayers to obtain 
God's holy love and the grace of perseverance ; 
3, Resolutions to avoid some particular sin and to 
practice some particular virtue. Three points are 
generally considered. The conclusion is made thus : 



344 ^^^^ Importance of Meditation. 

1. I thank Thee, O God, for the Hghts Thou hast 
given me. 

2. I purpose to keep the resolutions I have 
made. 

3. I beg Thy grace to fulfil them. 

Nor must we ever forget to recommend to God 
the holy souls in purgatory, and all poor sinners. 
Recommend yourself to the Blessed Virgin, the 
saints and your guardian angel. Select an ejacula- 
tion and holy thought for the day. 

"There is no doubt," as Fra Gaetano da Bergamo 
says in the preface to his beautiful work, Thoughts 
and Affections on the Passion of Jesus Christ, 
*'that meditation, if rightly understood, means some- 
thing more than thinking; for we say of our 
mind that it thinks even when it wanders and is 
distracted, and apprehends objects present to it but 
•superficially ; while it can not be said to meditate un- 
less with mature deliberation it ruminates and pene- 
trates things, so as to arrive, under the guidance of 
reason, at a knowledge of some truth. Meditation 
always requires labor and study. We must observe 
that meditation, to bear fruit, must be accompanied 
with prayer. Therefore it is important to correct 
the mistake of those who imagine that meditation 
and mental prayer are identical. In meditation we 
exercise the understanding ; in prayer, the will. In 
meditation the soul is recollected in itself ; in prayer 
it is lifted up to God. In meditation the mind is 
occupied with thoughts ; in prayer the heart is ex- 
cited to affections. You may meditate as long as 
you please and upon the most sublime subjects; but 
such meditation will be of small profit if you do not 
proceed to prayer by producing afifections suitable 
to your thoughts. Meditation is necessary as a 
preparation for prayer, since it is by means of 



The Importance of Meditation. 345 

thoughts that the affections are awakened and in- 
flamed. On the other hand, prayer is requisite to 
give to meditation its efficacy and fruit. This is the 
end of meditation, that the will should be moved, 
then the affections, so that the truth may not only 
be known, but loved. Hence the errors of those 
heretics who dared assert that there was no neces- 
sity either to apply our thoughts to the Passion of 
Jesus Christ, or to exercise our affections upon it, 
have been condemned. 

''What, then, is the proper definition of prayer? 
Simply this : As meditation is to think seriously on 
the things of God, so prayer is the devout turning 
of one's self to God by pious and humble affections. 
Praising, admiring, adoring God; fearing and lov- 
ing God; trusting and hoping in God; humbHng 
and resigning one's self to God ; delighting in God ; 
grieving over the offences committed against God; 
compassionating the Man-God in His pains and 
ignominies ; endeavoring to imitate Him. All this 
is prayer, because it is a turning of one's self to God 
by the affections of the will. And as meditation no 
less than prayer should be directed to the well- 
ordering of our Hfe, which consists in shunning evil 
and adhering to good ; so, in a general way, we may 
say of affections that they are various movements 
of the will — loving, desiring, seeking, and resolving 
either to acquire some virtue or to correct or avoid 
some vice. We can never work enough, and we 
shall never work in vain, at eradicating vice and ac- 
quiring virtue." 

Among vices we should endeavor especially to 
attack and mortify pride, which is nothing else than 
an inordinate love of self, and the mother and source 
of all vices. 

Among virtues we should endeavor to cultivate 



34^ The Importance of Meditation. 

especially humility and charity : the former being 
the groundwork and foundation of all virtues ; the 
latter, their crown and perfection. 

''Many books of meditation obviate for us the dif- 
ficulty of choice of subject. They distribute appro- 
priate subjects throughout the year conformably to 
the liturgical character of the time. The books of 
the Sacred Scripture are a perennial source of sub- 
jects for meditation. Not a book of meditation that 
has ever been issued but is built upon them. The 
very extensiveness, however, of the field there open 
to us presents a great difficulty in the choice of a 
definite subject, and for that very reason good and 
pious men have committed to paper the results of 
their own research, and have given to us systems of 
meditations drawn from the same divine source.'' 
We could give a long list of these books. Father 
Clare of the Society of Jesus has published an ex- 
cellent work on The Science of the Spiritual Life, 
which is an amplification of the Exercises of St. 
Ignatius. For Religious communities in general, 
the following works are perhaps most serviceable 
and commendable. 

I. Meditations on the Life, the Teaching, and the 
Passion of Jesns Christ. For every day of the 
ecclesiastical year, with an appendix of meditations 
for the festivals of the various saints. By Rev. 
Augustine Maria Ilg, O.S.F.C. ; translated from the 
latest German edition ; edited by Rev. Richard F. 
Clarke, S.J. Competent critics are very generous 
in their laudations of this work. Right Rev. Bishop 
Maes, for instance, says : 'The Ilg-Clarke Medi- 
tations are good, and may, for the reason that 
they are so discursive, suit the majority of readers 
the better. They will be all the more welcome to 
those who complain of the dryness of their imagina- 



The Importance of Meditation. 347 

tion and who like plenty of suggestion whereon to 
place practical resolutions/' 

2. Meditations for Every Day in the Year, on the 
Life of Our Lord. By the Rev. B. Vercruysse, S.J. 
The meditations are methodical, short and thor- 
oughly practical. 

3. Meditations for All the Days of the Year. 
For the use of priests, Religious, and the laity. By 
Rev. M. Hamon, S.S. ; from the French by Mrs. 
Anne R. Bennett-Gladstone. This work of the 
learned and saintly cure of St. Sulpice is certainly 
worthy of the highest praise. 

4. Growth in the Knowledge of Our Lord. Medi- 
tations for every day of the year ; adapted from the 
original of the Abbe de Brandt, by Sister Mary 
Fidelis. ''An unusually valuable addition to devo- 
tional literature, not only spiritual, but sensible,'' 
says a reviewer. 

5. Manna of the Soul. Meditations for every day 
of the year. By Rev. Paul Segneri, S.J. This book 
is praised by saintly and scholarly men. 

6. Meditations for Every Day in the Year. 
Edited by Rev. Roger Baxter, S.J., of Georgetown 
College. This excellent work is remarkable for 
its apt quotations from the Bible ; moreover, the 
exposition and practical application of these scrip- 
tural citations are terse, to the point,* and very 
forceful. 

7. Meditations on the Life and Passion of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ for Every Day in the Year. By 
Rev. J. Nouet, S.J. To which are added medita- 
tions on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by Father 
Borgo of the Society of Jesus. This work presents 
a digest of the Gospel truths in concise yet meaty 
meditations, combining what is touching in senti- 
ment with what is practical for the reformation of 



348 The Importance of Meditation. 

conduct ; appealing equally to the understanding and 
the heart. 

The Abbe Chaignon's Meditations deserve to 
be mentioned here; also Bishop Bellord's Medita- 
tions on Christian Doctrine, and Outlines of Medita- 
tions, Cardinal Newman's Book of Meditations 
treats a number of particular questions only. Chal- 
loner's Meditations are well known and need no 
recommendation. A book entitled Meditations on 
the Ditties of Religious, by a Superior of the Ur- 
sulines of Montargis, is intended especially for those 
devoted to the instruction of youth. For private 
meditation on the Passion of Our Lord throughout 
the year we recommend most earnestly Thoughts 
and Affections on the Passion of Jesus Christ, by 
the Rev. Gaetano da Bergamo, Capuchin, and, of 
course. Father Gallwey's Watches of the Passion. 

For the hour of adoration. Father Tesniere's 
books, The Eucharistic Christ and The Adoration of 
the Blessed Sacrament, are excellent. The method 
according to the four ends of sacrifice is followed 
in the meditations of both books in this order : 
I, Adoration; 2, Thanksgiving; 3, Reparation; 4, 
Prayer. The Rev. A. Tesniere, S.S.S., a member of 
the Order^ founded by Pere Eymard, is a dis- 
tinguished theologian as well as a ferveut adorer of 
the Blessed Sacrament. Variety of considerations 
in the hour of adoration is strongly advocated by 
Pere Eymard. Contemplating the infancy and the 
Passion of Our Lord as reproduced in the mysteries 
of the altar, considering Our Saviour in His various 
characteristics, and viewing Him under all the rela- 
tions which He sustained in His mortal life from 
Bethlehem to Calvary, from the crib to the cross — 
this exercises all our faculties, helps to banish dis- 
tractions, evokes pious affections, suggests practical 



The Importance of Meditation. 349 

resolutions, in a word, makes the hour of adoration 
very profitable and fruitful. In Father Tesniere's 
books, especially in The Adoration of the Blessed 
Sacrament^ this idea of the "apostle of the Holy 
Eucharist" is carried out in a masterly manner. 
These meditations or adorations reveal the grandeur 
of the mystery of the altar, the infinite love and 
condescension of Our Emmanuel, the tender solici- 
tude and loving kindness of our Good Shepherd, our 
divine Friend in the Holy Eucharist, where He 
dwells all days in our midst, to sw^eeten our exile, to 
strengthen us in our struggles, to comfort us in our 
sorrows, to respond to all our joys, to lift us when 
we fail, and to keep us in the way that leads to 
our heavenly Father's home.* 

*This article is an adaptation and amplification of a 
paper published in The American Ecclesiastical Review, 
December, 1903, on The Importance of Meditation for the 
Missionary Priest, by the Rev. E. Godwin, Ph.D. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Qn Continual ipia^ei\ 

i?^ HE chapter on continual prayer requires, both on 
^^ account of the subject as well as the conse- 
quences resulting from it, to be treated with care, 
and read with great attention. The Gospel says : 
''We must always pray and not faint" (Luke xviii. 
t). Let us weigh the words: ''We must." It is a 
precept, not a counsel ; a matter of obligation, not a 
degree of perfection. If we fail in it we sin more 
or less grievously. 

We must ; it is a universal duty, and concerns all 
Christians. It does not concern only the priests of 
God's Church, or persons consecrated to His ser- 
vice by religious vows, but all w^ho profess to be- 
lieve in the Gospel and follow it as their rule of life, 
whether they live in the retirement of the cloister or 
in the busy world. We must pray always ; not only 
must we have a stated time for prayer, and never 
let a day pass without praying, but make of it a 
continual exercise that nothing should put aside nor 
interrupt. 

The w^ords that follow^ ''pray always and not faint," 
clearly show us it is thus they are to be understood. 
First the Gospel ordains that prayer sh?^ll be con- 
tinual, and then forbids its cessation ; inculcating 
thus the precept in tvv^o different ways. There is 
not to be found in the Holy Scripture any other pre- 
cept expressed in stronger or more explicit terms; 
yet when taken either as vocal or mental prayer un- 
der the name of meditation, it is plainly impracti- 
cable. And for this reason those who know of no 



On Continual Prayer. 351 

Other kind of prayer believe themselves authorized 
to restrict this obligation to certain fixed times. No 
doubt they would be right if God could only be ad- 
dressed by word of mouth or intense application of 
the mind. 

But the words of the Gospel lead us further, and 
they ought to have opened our eyes to see the neces- 
sity of another kind of prayer, which is of such a na- 
ture that every Christian can apply himself to it 
continually. And what is this prayer? It is the 
most essential, the most absolutely necessary part of 
prayer, that which alone draws God's attention on 
us, that which gives value to all the rest; in one 
word, it is the prayer of the heart. This can be 
made without any interruption. No other can. So 
it is evidently this that is of precept, and there is 
no need of making any restriction of w^hich the 
words do not seem to admit. It is the prayer of 
the heart, unknown to the Jews, for wdiich Jesus 
Christ upbraids them, and that God, through His 
prophet, foretold should be the privilege of the New 
Law : 'Tn that day," says He, 'T will pour out upon 
the house of David and upon the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayers" 
(Zach. xii. 10), a spirit of grace that will urge them 
to pray without ceasing, and a spirit of prayer that 
will incessantly draw down on them fresh graces ; 
a double spirit that will keep up a constant com- 
munication between our heavenly Father and His 
children. It is this prayer of the heart to which the 
Apostle St. Paul alludes when he exhorts the faith- 
ful to ''pray without ceasing" (i Thess. v. 17), and 
when he assures them that he continually remem- 
bered them in his prayers. 

But, you will say, how can the prayer of the 
heart be continual ? I ask you, how can it be other- 



352 On Continual Prayer. 

wise ? We are agreed that it is the Holy Ghost who 
dictates this prayer of the heart, whether He al- 
ready dwells in the heart, or whether He is about to 
do so. Now as soon as the Holy Ghost begins to 
pray in the heart. His intention is to pray there 
without ceasing, and it is our fault if He does not, 
as it all depends on our corresponding to grace, by 
the entire subjection of our will to His ; just as when 
He wishes to take possession of our heart our re- 
sistance alone prevents Him from doing so, and once 
admitted He will remain there always, if we do not 
chase Him away. The Holy Ghost dwelling in the 
heart would never be idle if He had full liberty to 
act. And what would He do therein, if not the 
special w^ork of the Spirit of grace and prayer, and 
of the Spirit who sanctifies us. He would keep the 
heart in a continual state of adoration, of thanks- 
giving, of sorrow for past sins, of supplication for 
help never to sin again. This does not mean that 
the heart would, at every moment, be making these 
special acts, for this is not possible ; but we should 
be always ready to make them when it pleased the 
Holy Ghost to draw them forth, and the seed of 
prayer w^ould always be in us, ready at any moment 
to germinate. This persevering habit of the soul is 
what I call continual prayer, and it can not be denied 
that this may, and should be the disposition of every 
Christian heart. It is the immediate result of char- 
ity. Actual prayer is charity put into practice ; 
habitual prayer is the proximate disposition for this. 
It is just as easy and quite as natural to the heart 
to pray without ceasing as to love always. We can 
always love God, though we are not always think- 
ing of Him nor always telling Him we love Him. It 
suffices that we should be resolved at all times, not 
only never to do anything contrary to this love, but 



On Continual Prayer. 353 

be ready to give to God on every occasion proof of 
this by actions inspired by grace. Is it not thus that 
a mother loves her children, a wife her husband, a 
friend his friend? The cherished object never 
comes to our mind without calling forth a feeling 
of love ; we would like never to lose sight of it, and 
if the mind is at times drawn off by other objects 
the heart never is. Just so is it with prayer. We 
have the merit to be always praying when we wish 
so to be, when at every moment we are ready to fol- 
low the movements of grace. It would be quite a 
mistake to im.agine that the avocations of life are an 
obstacle to this prayer. On the contrary, they are, 
or at least may be, an exercise of it, and there is a 
prayer that is correctly called the prayer of action. 
Every action done for God, as being His will, and 
in the w^ay in which God wills, is a prayer, better 
even than an actual prayer that might be made at 
this time. It is not necessary that the action be good 
and holy in itself ; an indifferent act is no less a 
prayer in virtue of the intention with which we do it. 
Thus the Apostle virtually enjoins the faithful to 
pray always when he says : ''All whatsoever you do 
in word or in work, all things do you in the name 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and 
the Father by Him" (Col. iii. 17). And again : 
"Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you 
do, do all to the glory of God" (i Cor. x. 31). If 
an animal or physical action, such as eating or 
drinking, does not interrupt prayer, much less would 
labor, whether of the body or of the mind, or details 
of housekeeping, domestic duties, or the occupa- 
tions of one's state of life. In all this, nothing of 
itself distracts the heart from union with God ; 
nothing stops the action of the Holy Ghost and the 
soul's cooperation with it. This is saying little, for 



354 On Continual Prayer. 

every action helps to unite us more closely to God, 
and to entertain the secret intercourse of the soul 
with the Holy Ghost. We are always praying if 
we are doing our dutv, and are doing it to please 
God. 

I rank among the actions that take the place of 
prayer : visits of politeness and convenience, friendly 
conversations, relaxations of the body and mind, 
provided they are seemly and within the limits of 
Christian morality. None of these things are in- 
compatible with unceasing prayer ; and with the ex- 
ception of what is bad, unbecoming, or useless, there 
is nothing that the Holy Ghost may not claim and 
sanctify and that irs not under the dominion of 
prayer. The agapce, or love-feasts of the first Chris- 
tians, instituted by the Apostles, were they not holy, 
and seasoned with spiritual joy? Did they weaken 
in them the spirit of grace and prayer? or rather 
did they not promote fraternal charity? Why 
should it not be the same with our meals and recrea- 
tions, if we resembled the primitive Christians? 
What I find so admirable in our religion is that it 
teaches us to honor God in everything, to pray to 
Him at all times, and to practice virtue on every 
occasion, and that there is nothing indifferent or 
useless in the Christian life. 

As there is a prayer of action, so is there also a 
prayer of suffering, and this is the most excellent 
and pleasing to God. It is a very common thing 
for us to complain of not being able to pray because 
we are ill, are suffering acute pain, or are in a state 
of weakness or languor. Did not our blessed Lord 
pray on the cross, and the martyrs on the scaffold? 
Actual prayer at such a time is impossible, unless 
it be at intervals, and by short aspirations ; neither is 
it expected. But suffer for God; suffer with sub- 



On Continual Prayer. 355 

mission and patience; suffer in union with Jesus 
Christ, and you will be praying exceedingly well. 

Thus it is that a truly Christian heart can and 
ought to pray unceasingly, partly by consecrating 
a fixed time for prayer, partly by acting, and partly 
also by suffering. And if we take notice we shall 
find that continual prayer is but the outcome of all 
the precepts of Christian morality. It is indispen- 
sable for the perfect observance of these precepts, 
it makes it easy, and without prayer their practice 
would be impossible. Thus is everything held to- 
gether, the connecting hnk unbroken, and the one 
leads to the other. 

There is also nothing which makes us better feel 
the necessity of being interior, that is, as St. Paul 
explains it, of being moved by the Spirit of God, 
than the obligation of continual prayer. For we 
can not fulfil this obligation if we are not in a state 
of grace, or if we willingly entertain thoughts con- 
trary or irrelevant to those which God wishes should 
at all times occupy us, or if we give ourselves up to 
affections which at least divide the heart, and de- 
prive God of a part of it. As soon as we become 
interior men, then the Holy Ghost takes possession 
of the soul and reigns there as He pleases. His first 
inspiration is an attraction to continual prayer ; He 
makes the soul find in this practice a most entranc- 
ing pleasure that fills her with a loathing for the 
things of earth and draws her from them, so that 
her conversation is henceforth in heaven. 

All this may seem a vain imagination and exag- 
gerated piety to ordinary Christians, who, through 
their own faults, have never tasted this heavenly 
gift, nor felt any attraction for what is interior. "It 
is quite enough," say they, ''to pray at stated times ; 
beyond that, it is quite admissible that we give free 



356 On Continual Prayer. 

play to our minds, provided we do not entertain 
bad thoughts. There are also many innocent in- 
clinations and tastes that we may indulge without 
scruple. What tedium, what slavery to regulate 
one's life always according to the interior action of 
grace ! However it may be explained, this continual 
prayer is an intolerable bondage.'' Thus speak half- 
hearted Christians who find it wearisome to be re- 
minded of God, and to whom prayer is a heavy ob- 
ligation. They interpret the Gospel according to 
their own dispositions. They like to deceive them- 
selves, and they speak evil of what is unknown to 
them, so as to give themselves the right to live in 
a careless way and give some freedom to nature. 
But these lax sentim.ents will never prevail against 
the doctrine of Jesus Christ; they will always find 
therein their own condemnation, as well as in the 
maxims and examples of the saints. Besides it is 
not true that the practice of continual prayer is la- 
borious to the degree they would make out. If we 
believed them, it deprives man. of all liberty or free- 
dom of mind to attend to business ; it does not al- 
low him to give his mind to the intercourse of life ; 
in conversation he is heavy, always inattentive, ab- 
sorbed in the thought of heavenly things ; alone or 
in society he always feels obliged to be serious and 
to forbid himself every kind of amusement. Human 
weakness could not endure such an exalted state. 
In any case to be able to lead such a life one would 
have to live like an anchorite. 

All this is pure exaggeration. I admit that con- 
tinual prayer is a restraint on the senses, on the 
imagination of the sensual man; and there is not a 
single point in the moral precepts of the Gospel that 
does not impose a like restraint on nature. But far 
from impeding man in the discharge of his duties, 



On Continual Prayer. 357 

it helps him ; far from fettering his talents, it teaches 
him to make that use of them for which God gave 
them to him ; he becomes more assiduous in his busi- 
ness ; he bears more lightly its burden ; and he suc- 
ceeds better in it. If it deprives him of a. false lib- 
erty, to which he pays a sort of worship, and of 
which he makes an ill-use to his own ruin, it brings 
him into the true liberty of the children of God. It 
does not forbid him to mix in society, according to 
the exigency or claims of his position in life ; on the 
contrary it makes him more easy of access, more af- 
fable, more obliging. It makes him take his full 
share in the conversation, authorizes him to exert 
his conversational powers without any affectation, 
to be interested and animated in speech; it makes 
him speak and listen to the purpose, and behave in 
such a manner that he pleases every one. At the 
same time it is obvious that he chooses his society, 
and that, when occasion offers, no human respect 
ever makes him wound charity, or be wanting in his 
respect for God or his neighbor. 

Continual prayer, as I have explained it, being but 
a certain disposition of the heart, turns habitually 
toward God; it does not require a strain on the 
mind, which is always free to apply itself to what 
God wishes of it, or allows it at every moment ; but 
its application is such that it is not enthralled by it, 
and at any given moment it passes with equal free- 
dom to another subject. We pray without thinking of 
it, without reflecting, without any one being aware of 
it, or suffering from it. In short, wherever our 
heart turns, there our prayer turns also ; sleep only 
interrupts it ; yet still it may be truly s^id with the 
spouse in the Canticles : ''I sleep and my heart 
watcheth" (Cant. v. 2). I do not see how a prayer 
like this can have any tedium for one's self or for 



358 On Continual Prayer. 

others. On the contrary it is most dehghtful to him 
who makes it, and it can never inconvenience our 
neighbor, who will gain great profit by frequenting 
the society of those who devote themselves to it. 
Besides, whether it be tedious or not, it is a precept, 
and every Christian must try to practice it. 

How are w^e to do this ? We must love God with 
our whole heart, with our whole mind, refer all our 
actions to Him, and have no other intention or desire 
but to please Him. We must wish to be entirely in 
His grace, and must contract the easy habit of lis- 
tening to that gentle, interior voice, of being docile 
to its warnings, and reproving ourselves for the 
slightest infidelity. We must also be firmly re- 
solved to renounce our own will, wage war against 
our self-love, keep a watch over our natural inclina- 
tions, and refuse them whatever they crave if it 
prejudice what we owe to God. That is, we must be 
Christians according to the maxims of the Gospel, 
seriously and efficaciously ; we must go once for all 
to the school of Christ and become the disciples of 
the Holy Ghost. When you have taken this resolu- 
tion, and the necessary steps to put it into execution, 
3^ou will pray, or it will not be long before you will 
pray, continually, because the Holy Ghost will at 
once take possession of you, and you will make rapid 
strides in union with God. If you have not yet taken 
this resolution, but have only the desire to do so, 
nourish and cultivate this desire by frequent as- 
pirations, by pious readings, and salutary reflections. 
''Ask, and you shall receive ; seek, and you shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you.'' It is 
unheard of that any one who desired to pray con- 
tinually, who with fervor solicited this grace, and 
who in order to obtain it did all that God inspired 
him to do — it is, I say, unheard of that such a one 



On Continual Prayer. 359 

did not attain to this happy state. It would indeed 
be a contradiction in terms. From whom does this 
desire come? Certainly from God Himself. Does 
He give it without a purpose? That can not be. 
He places this desire for prayer within you in order 
to bestow that gift on you ; He will infallibly give it 
to you if you ask for it as you ought; and He in- 
vites you and presses you and helps you to use the 
following language : I have never known what con- 
tinual prayer is, and I have been far from knowing 
it. But, O my God, what I have just been reading 
gives at the same time the idea and the desire of 
it. I see it is a precept on which all others depend, 
and without which I can not fulfil them, since it is 
the only means to carry them out. There is no mid- 
dle course : either I must renounce the practice of 
evangelical perfection, or adopt that of continual 
prayer. Can I for a moment waver? And even 
were Thy glory not at stake, should I risk my own 
salvation in renouncing the efifort to be a perfect 
Christian ? 

O Holy Spirit ! I give my heart to Thee without 
reserve and forever. Enkindle therein a fire of love, 
whence shall ascend, like incense, a prayer rising in- 
cessantly toward heaven, which will draw down 
without ceasing all the graces I need. If Thy 
heart, O my God ! is always occupied with me, is it 
not just that mine should be entirely devoted to 
Thee? O perfect beauty! O infinite goodness! 
Canst Thou be an object less interesting to me than I 
am to Thee ! Thy delight is to be with the children 
of men and to converse with them, and should not 
mine be to hold communion with Thee ! Unceasing 
adoration, uninterrupted love, are the portion of the 
blessed ; why should I not make this my lot on earth, 
and thus have a foretaste of the happiness of 



360 On Continual Prayer. 

heaven? Shall I always be my own enemy — always 
opposed to my true happiness ? No, my God ! I will 
begin to pray without interruption in time, that I 
may continue to do so in eternity."^ 

*From How to Pray, by Abbe Grou, S J. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
tTbe 3Btcvmt^.—Zbe Divine ©ffice* 

JJ^HE breviary is a formulary of prayers and 
^^ sacred reading which priests recite daily. 
Formerly the psalms, hymns, orations, and spiritual 
selections, which all priests and Religious were 
obliged to recite, were of considerable length. 
Pope St. Gregory VII. abridged this ^'Office," 
for those of his pontifical court who were un- 
der the obHgation of saying it. This abridgment 
soon became of common use throughout the Church, 
under the name of ''Roman Breviary.'' According 
to some authors it takes its name from the fact of 
its forming, as it were, a summary of religion, a com- 
pendium of Christian teaching. According to Bene- 
dict XIV., breviary signifies a short, brief order of 
the Divine Office. It was also called ''OMcmm 
divinmn; Opus Dei,'' because its recitation is a 
sacred work which has God for its object. ''Pensum 
servittitis/' because it is a debt, a duty to be paid 
to God by those who are in a special manner 
consecrated to Him. ''Ctirstis/' because it should be 
said, in its different parts, according to the hours of 
the day. ''HorcB Canonicce/' either because the 
sacred canons ordain its recitation or because it 
obliges the regular Canons in particular. ''Synaxis'' 
or ''Collecta;' because in m^onasteries it is recited in 
common. 

The breviary contains the Divine Office, or the 
formal prayers which the Church puts into the 



362 The Breviary, — The Divine OMce. 

mouths of her priests and Religious. It is composed 
of seven parts, called canonical hours, viz., Matins, 
Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and 
Compline. The part called Matins, which are said 
toward the break of day, is also called Nocturn or 
Vigils, because formerly it was chanted during the 
night. Lauds are said after Matins. The custom 
to-day is to recite these parts on the eve of the feast 
or feria to which they belong. There are yet cer- 
tain Religious Orders which recite them during the 
night, beginning at 2 a.m. Prime is said at sunrise ; 
Terce, at the third hour, or 9 a.m. ; Sext, at the sixth 
hour, or noon ; None, at the ninth hour, or three 
o'clock in the afternoon. The general custom to- 
day is to recite these ''little hours," as they are 
called, in the morning. Vespers followed by Com- 
pline form the evening prayers. This division of the 
.Divine Office is not an obligatory one. The Church 
has made these divisions in order to imitate David, 
who sang the praises of God seven times a'day. A 
reform being found necessary, the Council of Trent 
made it the object of a special decree. The breviary 
was restored to its primitive purity, and thus first 
edited by Pope Pius V., and then by Urban VIIL, 
who prescribed the new edition for the entire 
Church. However, the Churches of the Oriental 
rite, as also the dioceses of Milan, Italy, and 
Toledo, in Spain, w^ere exempted by the papal re- 
script from the use of this edition. In the United 
States the Roman Breviary is obligatory.* 

2r!)e JBibine <!^tRce, 

If we enter some great factory, and watch the 
hundreds of whirring, clattering looms w^hich are 

*From the Ecclesiastical Dictionary. 



The Breviary. — The Divine OfUce. 363 

rapidly producing costly materials, we can not un- 
derstand what it is that regulates and sets in motion 
all this machinery unless we have been shown the 
motive power. So now, let us examine what an- 
swers to the steam or the electricity, /. e., the crea- 
tive, m.otive principle of all monastic life and activ- 
ity. It is prayer, prayer in common, the solemn Di- 
vine Office in choir, of which our holy father St. 
Benedict says, ''Operi Dei nihil prc^ponatur/' *'Let 
nothing be preferred to the w^ork of God.'' Thus 
does our legislator term the worship of God in 
community, because in a most true sense it is, both 
corporally and spiritually, work for God and with 
God. To it nihil, nothing, is to be preferred, neither 
private prayer and contemplation, nor manual la- 
bor, nor study, nor active work for souls, preaching, 
instructing, giving missions, or anything else ; 
nihil prceponatiir, there is nothing more important, 
more holy, more efficacious for a monk than the 
praise of God. 

Is this the case nowadays? Is not our century 
one of action, of restless, unwearying activity, and 
not of quiet, contemplative prayer? And, indeed, 
is not all comprehension of such a life of prayer 
well-nigh lost? When a Religious community is 
mentioned, one is asked first and foremost : What do 
they do? What is their occupation? as if they were 
manufacturers. Once when I informed a friend in 
the world of my intentions of entering the cloister, 
he said, 'T can understand that ; it is so grand, so 
glorious, to give one's self entirely to the service of 
God, but don't go into a contemplative Order. In 
these days work is needed ; the question is, what is 
most for the common good? They say, of course, 
that they pray for all of us, but what do we get by 
that ? We want to see them work and labor to make 



364 The Breviary. — The Divine Office. 

themselves useful." This is the opinion of a wide 
circle, but it is one suggested by a very superficial 
faith. St. Benedict's declaration, that nothing is to 
be preferred before the work of God, is it then no 
longer true? Have we outlived it? Is God 
changed, or have we, nowadays, less need of Him? 
Can human activity supply the place of divine grace, 
and is it not solely by prayer that this is called down 
upon us? 

When Israel fought against Amalec, Moses on the 
mountain was raising his hands in prayer ; it was 
not the fighting warriors that were victorious, but 
the power of prayer that vanquished the enemy, for 
as often as Moses let fall his hands it was Amalec 
that got the upper hand. This type has often been 
used in favor of the Church suppliant as compared 
with the Church militant, and very justly; and at 
this present time, as much as ever, nay, more than 
ever, do we stand in need of prayer, and of the 
solemn prayer in common of the Divine Office. But 
as the conception of this has well-nigh faded from 
men's minds let us be permitted to set it forth in 
all its real significance, as regards itself, the monks, 
and finally, the Church and mankind in general. . . . 
The worship of God is the first and most important 
duty of the human race. Man is a rational being, is 
created to praise God, says St. John Chrysostom, to 
offer to God the worship of the whole creation. 
Nor is it sufficient that each individual should com- 
ply with this duty by his own prayers. The relation 
of God to man, of the Creator to the creature, of the 
King of kings to His subjects, demands a solemn 
common worship, sacrifice and prayer, such service 
as holy Church offers to God. The human race 
must offer to God socially, either as a united body or 
by due representation, its tribute of adoration, 



The Breviary. — The Divine OMee. 365 

praise, and thanksgiving. If each individual mem- 
ber of a corporation or of a parliament were to offer 
his homage to the king in private, this would by no 
means have the same significance as if all did so in 
common, or by special and solemn deputation. And 
this is what God requires, for it is written, ''Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God ;" ''All the earth 
doth worship Thee ;" "All the nations that Thou hast 
made shall come and adore before Thee, O Lord ;'' 
'Traise the Lord, all ye nations, praise Him, all ye 
peoples ;" "Let all the earth bless the Lord, let it 
praise and exalt Him above all forever.'' The great 
significance of this official praise of God may be 
recognized also by its sublimity. Next to the holy 
sacrifice of the Mass, in which the work and fruit of 
our Redemption are continually renewed and per- 
petuated, the Divine Office gives the greatest glory 
to God, and it is most closely united and intimately 
connected with that sacrifice. 

The holy Mass is often called the sun of the 
spiritual life and the Choir Office is compared to the 
rays which surround it. Without the sun, which is 
Christ Himself, there would be no rays, but on the 
other hand the rays announce and spread far. and 
wide the glory of the sun, and it is by their means 
that we receive its beneficial light and heat. The 
Choir Office possesses a grandeur beyond all that is 
merely human, for it is divine, divine in its origin 
and source, divine in the Object of its praise, and 
divine in its form, which is of no human invention. 
The Holy Spirit lives, works, and speaks in the 
Church, and we have to thank Him for its con- 
tents, its arrangement, and its words, which He has 
inspired. It is the official prayer of the Church, and 
as she is the mystical body of Christ every breath 
in her body belongs to Him. He is her head, and 



366 The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 

her prayer, her language, her voice are His, and 
therefore divine. ''Laudat ipse seipsum Deus/' ''He 
Himself praises Himself," says St. Augustine. The 
due celebration of this worship is a supernatural of- 
fice, it is the service of angels, and will be our 
blessed occupation for all eternity. 

The sublimity of this solemn praise of God im- 
plies also its efficacy. Our divine Lord Himself has 
said : ''Wheresoever two or three are united in My 
name, there am I in the midst of them," and again, 
^'Whatsoever you shall ask in My name, I will give 
it to you." "Thy prayer," says St. John Chrysos- 
tom, ''is not of such efficacy when thou prayest 
alone as when thou prayest with thy brethren," for, 
as St, Ambrose observes, "if many souls unite they 
become powder ful, and God can not despise the 
prayers of a multitude." 

They who sing psalms thus together, as a 
well-ordered army in battle array, do violence to 
heaven, a violence most pleasing to God, ''Hcec vis 
Deo grata est.'' Individuals are as drops borne on 
by the force of the stream. Devotion in common 
arouses, vivifies, enkindles ; it overcomes, to a cer- 
tain extent, the tepid distractions of the individual, 
and unites him in the sonorous harmony of the 
choir, and thus the common prayer and praise re- 
sound like one voice rich and full-toned, well pleas- 
ing to God. It is the voice of the Church, of His 
Son, to w^hich He can not but listen, ''to tins 
Ecclesice vox una,'' "the one voice of the whole 
Church." This solemn praise of God has at all 
times been offered to Him by mankind. The an- 
cient patriarchs offered sacrifice, and prayed sur- 
rounded by their families or their tribe. Moses 
regulated the service of God before the tabernacle, 
appointed to the priests their office, which was 



The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 367 

shared by the tribe of Levi. Levites were the 
chosen singers, who interceded for the people. 
David's first care when, after glorious victories, he 
had established his kingdom, was to order a be- 
coming worship for the sanctuary of the Lord. He 
chose out four thousand singers from among the 
Levites, whom he divided into twenty-four choirs ; 
and he himself, the hero king, with golden harp in 
hand, intoned the festal hymns and psalms at the 
head of the grand choir of priests. "As often as the 
sun rose in the east on Jerusalem, or sank behind 
the mountains of Sion, psalms and musical instru- 
ments accompanied the morning and evening sacri- 
fice." And when his son, the wise King Solomon, 
had completed the building of the magnificent Tem- 
ple, he stood in the presence of the whole people of 
Israel, before the altar of the Lord, and stretched 
forth his hands toward heaven. Then, kneeling on 
both knees, he offered a solemn prayer of consecra- 
tion. He praised, gave thanks, and prayed, and the 
whole people joined in adoration with him, and in 
sacrifice to the Lord. And under the New Cove- 
nant, of which the Old was but a shadow and a 
type, should not this adoring worship of God find a 
yet grander and more glorious expression? The 
Church has entered on the heritage of the Syna- 
gogue ; has received from it the precious treasure 
of Holy Scripture; what were but dark, prophetic 
sayings have become the accomplished works of 
God, in the fulfilment of which she rejoices to-day. 
At the birth of the world's Redeemer angelic choirs 
intoned their hymns of praise, the poor shepherds 
joined in them, and now they resound, without in- 
terruption, throughout the whole w^orld. Christ, 
the divine King and Priest, not only offered to His 
heavenly Father a sacrifice such as alone was worthy 



368 The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 

of Him, but He worshiped Him also, with the 
choir of His apostles, by psalms and hymns, 
and so He still worships Him wherever Chris- 
tians are gathered together in His name, for 
He is with them and in them till time shall be no 
more. 

When the psalmody died away in the desecrated 
Temple, it awoke in the joyful choirs of the early 
Christian congregations, and following in the foot- 
steps of the apostolic missionaries it spread 
throughout Asia Minor and Greece, extended all 
along the coast of the Mediterranean, and found an 
echo in the deserts of Egypt. The subterranean 
vaults of the catacombs resounded with the Chris- 
tian hymns ; and when the spell of heathen domina- 
tion was broken there sprang up gorgeous temples 
and grand cathedrals, in which the praises of God 
were sung with all solemnity by priests and faith- 
ful. Soon the Church was reckoned no more by 
congregations, but by nations ; it became no longer 
possible for all the faithful to assemble together 
daily for the praise of God, and they intrusted this 
duty to the priesthood. For them, therefore, this 
Divine Office, or recitation of the breviary, becam.e 
the first and most important duty. All the thou- 
sands of priests who, the wide world round, daily- 
nay, from the differences of time, ceaselessly — re- 
cite their hours in the name of holy Church, form, 
as it were, one single choir, one sounding harp, in 
unison with the never-ceasing intercession and praise 
of the divine High Priest. The whole intention, the 
construction and arrangement of the Divine Office, 
indicates the element of community ; it is founded on 
alternation of singing, and on the united action of 
the clergy and the people, as is distinctly expressed 
even in the Holy Sacrifice itself; ''piiblica est nobis 



The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 369 

et communis oratio/' "we have a public and com- 
mon worship/' 

in the Holy Sacrifice, however, this union is 
purely spiritual. Priests and people meet together, 
it is true, wherever it is possible, for prayer in com- 
mon, and it is still kept up in the cathedrals and 
collegiate churches of Catholic lands, but this does 
not satisfy the Church, who desires that God should 
be honored by united, solemn, uninterrupted choral 
worship, and for this purpose a special order of 
men is required. It is true that the evangelical 
counsels are practiced by the priesthood, inasmuch 
as they have embraced poverty (at least in spirit), 
promised obedience to their bishop, and vowed per- 
petual chastity, but even this is not enough, The 
endeavor to attain perfection, which has been con- 
firmed by the three vows, must find its due represen- 
tation in a special state of life, or holy Church would 
be deprived of her choicest blossoms, her most de- 
licious fruits. 

Thus arose the necessity for the religious state, 
the members of which, both men and women, should 
be consecrated in an especial manner to God, and be- 
long to Him alone. They are the follow^ers of the 
early Christian communities, of which it was said, 
"they were all together and had all things in com- 
mon . . . continuing daily with one accord in the 
temple . . . praising God." This early Christian 
community life in poverty, obedience, and continual 
prayer was never to cease throughout the Church as 
she grew and spread over all the earth, and it con- 
tinued its existence in the cloister. There, above all, 
should the inextinguishable flame of the divine 
praise be fed, there be found the mouthpiece and 
the harp of holy Church. The cloister is not only a 
rallying point for all Christian people, a model of 



370 The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 

Christian life, but also a glowing flame of fervent 
prayer, the perpetual lamp ever burning to the glory 
of God. This then was the first and chief task, the 
reason for community life, the element of union 
among its members, so that we could expect them 
rather to pray together without living together, 
than ever to give up prayer in common, as, in fact, 
Carthusians live in separate dwellings, and hermits 
dwell in cells apart from one another, yet all meet 
'together for choral prayer. 

This call to prayer was understood of old by the 
dwellers in the Eastern ''lauras," and the fathers of 
'the Egyptian deserts, as well as by the monks of the 
early monasteries in Italy and Gaul, but it was first 
brought out in its full beauty and significance by our 
holy father, St. Benedict. He grasped the idea of 
the liturgical life with all the ardor and strength of 
a heart devoted to God ; he carried it out with the 
talent for organization of a Roman patrician, and 
he made his Order the herald of this scheme for the 
solemn worship of God, the representation of the 
prayer of the Church. Thirteen chapters of his 
holy Rule treat of the Divine Office, and we may 
well say the end and aim of it is to make each in- 
dividual monk, who for his own sanctification has 
sought to become a member of the monastic family, 
so utterly give himself up to it as to be but one more 
voice in the harmonious choir of the brotherhood 
who have undertaken to represent upon earth the 
adoration that Jesus Christ Himself ever pays to 
His heavenly Father. All turns upon this, the 
glorious ceremonies, the splendid vestments, the 
lofty vaulted temples, and the sonorous chant which 
resounds within them. The Benedictine monk 
rarely goes out into the world ; his task is to glorify 
God in the temple of His majesty, and in so doing 



The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 371 

to sanctify himself. Well, therefore, could the great 
legislator say, ''Nihil prceponatur/' ''Nothing shall 
be preferred before the work of God," and for this 
reason it should be looked for as a sign of true voca- 
tion, whether the newcomer *'be zealous for the ser- 
vice of God, ''Si sollicihis sit ad opus Dei/' 

Wholly engrossed in the dignity and grandeur of 
this service, the choir monk lives but for this sacred 
obligation. Not single days from time to time, but 
the entire year becomes a prolonged and varied fes- 
tival, which has for him an ever newer and deeper 
meaning. Penetrating more and more into the mys- 
tical depths of the liturgical prayers and ceremonial, 
he thus sanctifies both his outer and inner man, and, 
like the angels, who in the presence of the Most 
Holy Trinity sing unceasingly their glorious 
Trisagion, so does he wholly devote himself, with 
all his powers and faculties, to the service of 
the Most High. Like them, he never leaves his 
place before the ever present God ; the choir stall is 
his home. His constant employment forms him into 
a man of God, into an instrument of God, apt and 
ready at once for every task, for every charge ; and 
there is no labor from which he would withdraw 
himself if it were imposed upon him by obedience. 
These most glorious occupations, which take him 
into the heavenly courts and number him among the 
chamberlains of his sovereign Lord, ennoble his 
whole being, and give to him that quiet dignity, that 
refined simplicity, that humble recollectedness, that 
fervent self-devotion, which the service of the King 
of kings demands. O happy and blessed vocation ! 
O gracious choice! "Beatus qtiem elegisti et as- 
siimpsisti/' "Blessed is he whom Thou hast chosen 
and taken to Thee.'' 

But the Divine Office is not alone a school of 



Zy2. The Breviary. — The Divine Ofhce. 

sanctification for each individual monk, it is the 
very marrow and heart of the Order. As the saints 
of God, so the different Orders in the Church have 
each their pecuhar mission in the divine economy. 
Our holy father St. Benedict first brought into set- 
tled form the Day Office of the Church, which, hav- 
ing been in use ever since the time of the apostles, 
had been continually developing into greater com- 
pleteness. He arranged the psalms, lections, and 
prayers, especially for his own monks, but always 
according to the spirit and the decrees of the 
Church of Rome, ''sicut psallit Ecclesia Romana/' 
^'as the Roman Church sings.'' The Church sup- 
ported his work by her authority, and illustrious 
Popes, like St. Gregory the Great (himself a son of 
St. Benedict), regulated by it the Divine Office of 
the whole Church. The diffusion of the solemn 
praise and worship of God was thus the lifelong task 
of the Benedictine Order, and at the same time the 
cause of its development and rapid extension. The 
Order stands and falls with the Choir Office ; its 
source of fertility is in the liturgical life, with the 
decline of which its own goes hand in hand. It is 
the chosen representative of the Church, in her 
quality of worshiper of God. Not only have 
priests found in our abbeys a place for spiritual 
recollection suited to the work of their vocation, but 
the people also, as children of the Church, have 
drawn from this common source devotion and grace. 
Thousands of monasteries, cities of God, fortresses 
of holy Church, made the whole of Europe a garden 
of the Lord. They were as the salt of the earth dur- 
ing the Middle Ages, so long as they remained true 
to their vocation. They were models alike for the 
family and the state, nurseries of the arts and 
sciences, but only so long as these were planted on 



The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 373 

the soil of the Htiirgical Hfe. In those ages of holy 
zeal men wished to offer Almighty God a perpetual 
adoration, and to this end there were monasteries in 
which three choirs followed one another in unbroken 
succession. At Bangor and lona, in the monastery 
of St. Boniface at Fulda, at Meissen, and many more 
in Saxony, the latis perennis resounded uninter- 
ruptedly by day and night. In the last-named mon- 
astery it was thus continued during three centuries. 
Later on, as a crown of stately abbeys began to 
encircle the earth, each took up the task from the 
other, at the call of the rising day-star, and thus w^as 
their adoration truly perpetual. Then other Orders 
came to join in the great song of praise, Augustin- 
ians, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and thus 
was perfected a harmony most pleasing to God, 
w^hich rose ever before His throne as a sacrifice of 
sweet savor. 

It may well be said that the history of the Middle 
Ages was materially influenced by the cloister, that 
the well-being or the evil lot of nations, their 
triumphs or their defeats, their peaceful development 
or their internal disquietude, were closely bound 
up with the ebb and flow of their religious life, and 
especially with the condition of their monasteries. 
And this is why princes were often the founders, 
benefactors, and supporters of the abbeys of their 
country, from whence they looked for the help of 
prayer in life and death, and in which it was their 
earnest desire that their bodies might one day be 
laid to rest, so that even in death they might reap 
their share of blessing from the choral prayer which 
re-echoed round their tomb. 

In order to understand aright this mysterious ac- 
tion, this power which guides the fate of nations, 
as well as of individuals, it is necessary to have a 



374 The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 

true and lively faith in the power of prayer. It was 
the monks who, by their intimate union with the 
Church triumphant, drew down the blessing of 
Heaven on the Church militant. They were the 
most faithful sons of the vicegerents of Christ, 
whose authority they upheld ; the support of the 
bishops, who were mostly nominated from their 
ranks; the counsellors of princes, the friends and 
benefactors of the people. When, once upon a time, 
the Emperor Charles V, was overtaken with his fleet 
on the African coast by a violent storm, and it was 
feared that the ships would be lost, he suddenly 
asked what time it was. ''Midnight,'' was the reply. 
*'Oh, then the danger is past,'' said the Emperor, 
*'for at this hour in Spain all the monks and nuns 
rise for prayer." 

When this faith grew dim, when false philosophy 
and revolutionary movements, shaking both altar 
and throne, undermined the very foundations of 
Christian belief, when all these distressing novelties 
penetrated even into the cloister, then indeed these 
citadels of God's glory, attacked by foes both within 
and without, could not but fall. That sense of spir- 
itual joy which makes the glad heart sing psalms 
was lost; with its loss the bonds of discipline and 
childlike obedience were relaxed. In many counx 
tries the Religious Orders thus degenerate were no 
longer worthy of their high calling, and the confusion 
within the Church, the diminution of faith, and the 
increasing licentiousness of the people, demanded 
new and different instruments of divine grace. The 
time of tranquil possession was at an end, and was 
succeeded by a period of struggle after the highest 
good. The Church, recognizing at all times the 
needs of the age, brought forth, in her maternal 
fecundity, men of action and of holy zeal, who, 



The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 375 

banding themselves together into new Orders and 
Congregations, threw themselves into the breach to 
reconquer and to save the threatened liberty of the 
Church. They had no time for the Choir Office; 
work was their watchword, consuming zeal for souls 
made them forgetful of themselves, and their mis- 
sion required a freedom of action which chafed at 
the confinement of the quiet cloister. 

Were the monks then set aside forever? Is it 
true that the Choir has become superfluous, that it 
has no longer any power, any significance? No, 
indeed ! Instruction, education, missions, care of 
souls in all its phases, are not in themselves sufficient 
to uphold and increase the kingdom of God on 
earth; all these require the support of prayer, of 
united prayer, which is a bond of union between 
heaven and earth. This prayer is not only one of the 
adornments of the Church, but also one of her most 
powerful weapons, of which she stands even more 
and more in need. Of what use is the courage, the 
contempt of death of the warriors of Israel, if 
Moses keeps not his hands uplifted in prayer? By 
prayer men obtain not only the aid of Heaven, a su- 
pernatural strength in their struggles, but instruc- 
tion and direction for their moral life. ''Wherever 
this public and ceremonious worship of God has 
been abolished, there,'' says a French theologian, ''as 
a natural consequence, the people fall back into a 
state of awful barbarism and the most unheeding 
ignorance of all natural and social duties." 

By the sympathy of a people with the liturgical 
worship of God we may estimate their moral and 
religious state. This was the case even in the classic 
days of paganism, and it continued to be so during 
the palmiest days of Christendom. St. Jerome re- 
lates that the inhabitants of Palestine used to sing 



376 The Breviary. — The Divine Office. 

verses of the psalms alternately during their labor 
in the fields, and St. Ambrose tells us that people of 
all ranks, both men and women, were in the habit 
of assisting at Matins on Sundays and festivals in 
the monastery church. This pious custom still con- 
tinued in the days of faith, and rich were the bless- 
ings it drew down upon the Christian family and 
the community at large. We remember how Mabel, 
the mother of St. Edmund of Canterbury, used to 
rise every night, with her little son to assist at 
Matins in the abbey church of Abingdon, and how 
English monarchs like Canute, St. Edward, and 
Henry VI. loved to assist at the Choir Office in the 
monasteries of Ely, Westminster, and Bury. St. Csesa- 
rius of Aries used to exhort his people to go at night 
to Matins, and many ancient canons required that 
the faithful should attend Vespers as well as Mass; 
several synods in the time of Charlemagne ordained 
that they should join in the psalms and responsories. 
King Alfred the Great always carried a breviary 
about with him : 'Traise the Lord, kings of the 
earth, and all people, princes, and all judges of the 
earth." Nowadays, this true appreciation of the 
Choir Office has been lost, and it is no longer the 
custom to take part in it ; hence the great and de- 
plorable ignorance on ecclesiastical subjects that 
exists among the people generally, and which ex- 
tends often to highly cultured circles. Few can un- 
derstand the Latin prayers of holy Mass, and yet 
every educated person ought to be sufficiently in- 
structed in the language of the Church to be able 
to follow the liturgy. In the Middle Ages it was 
familiar to all educated people, and even the peasants 
and townsfolk knew many psalms by heart. *'The 
psalms are easily remembered when they are often 
sung/' said Bishop Nicetius. In Italy and France 



The Breviary. — The Divine OMce. 377 

even now we find the people singing the psalms at 
Vespers, but in England the practice is well-nigh 
lost, the glorious chant is all but forgotten. And 
yet, once upon a time, when the civil power sought 
to root it out, the people even used force to preserve 
it. The men of Devon and Cornwall rose in the time 
of Edward VL, clamoring for the restoration of 
Matins, Mass, Evensong, and Litany, the ancient 
services they had learned to love. They were, in- 
deed, but echoing the demand of the heroes of the 
pilgrimage of grace. Their pious outcries were only 
stifled by the violence of foreign mercenaries. How 
much of lively emotion, of ennobling sentiment, and 
of heavenly consolation is lost to a family and to 
every member of it, when they can not understand 
the prayers of the Church, no longer care to follow 
the liturgical offices, and for the most part fall back 
upon the sickly and enervating food of the senti- 
mental books of devotion which crowd the book- 
market by the dozen. 

With a growing faith, its outward expression will 
again come to life. Instead of the empty, cold ser- 
vices of a so-called "enlightened age'' our churches 
will once more array themselves in warmer cloth- 
ing, and through their richly decked naves will 
again resound the time-honored prayers and chants 
of a Christian past, full of the Holy Spirit of God. 

Already there are many pious souls who not only 
use the Missal for their daily Mass, but also rejoice 
to assist at the day Office of the Church whenever 
circumstances will permit. Moreover, there ' are 
now many highly cultured men and women who 
have applied themselves with pious industry to the 
due understanding of the liturgy, and who delight 
in its rich perfum.e. The founder of a glorious ab- 
bey in Belgium is present every day with his family 



S7^ The Breviary. — The Divine Oihce. 

at conventual Mass and Vespers, and gentlemen 
' oi all ranks, even officers in uniform, are often to be 
seen among the guests in our foreign abbeys fol- 
lowing the prayers of the choir, and we are ac- 
quainted with a great manufacturer, with two thou- 
sand workmen in his employ, who says regularly 
every day the Roman Breviary. 

Interest in the liturgy is rapidly growing and 
spreading. Zealous priests and good books, such as 
Dom Gueranger's well-known work, help people to 
comprehend it. But, before all else, this is the task 
of the abbey, to enhance once more the grandeur of 
the liturgical offices. The Benedictine Order must 
be ever more and more conscious of this, its great 
mission, and setting aside as secondary all other 
exterior work, must give the first place to the solemn 
Office of the Choir, and by furthering with holy zeal 
the solemn service of the altar show itself once more 
worthy of its great forefathers. This is felt even in 
the world, as is proved very clearly by the desire for 
such centers of prayer and praise, the demand for 
monasteries, and the lively interest taken in the di- 
vine worship and the increasing appreciation of it, 
wherever they have sprung up. From far and near 
the people flock to them to listen to the sacred chant, 
to delight in the splendor and dignity of the divine 
worship, and to feel their hearts borne up toward 
God by the sounds of jubilant and supplicating 
prayer. 

What are the psalms which form the principal 
part of the ecclesiastical worship? Composed three 
thousand years ago, they were used by the Syna- 
gogue, which looked forward with eager longing to 
the coming of Him of whom they spoke in mystic 
and prophetic utterance. In the fulness of time 
Christ came ; He, also, used the psalms from the 



The Breviary. — The Divine Office. 379 

crib to the cross, and since then His Church con- 
tinues by them her glorious hymn of praise, adora- 
tion, and thanksgiving. They rise as the outward 
flame of the inward fire which the Redeemer would 
fain enkindle in all hearts, as the earthly echo of 
that celestial harmony which is unceasingly heard 
around the throne of the Most High. The psalms 
are the work of the Holy Ghost, but in order to 
make them known God chose out a man after His 
own heart, and placed a harp in his hand that he 
might evoke their unearthly strains. This was 
David the king. Rarely had mortal man such vast 
experience of the vicissitudes of life as had the 
Psalmist. There is no joy that he did not taste, no 
sorrow by which his soul was not wrung; his life 
comprised within its course every emotion which the 
human heart can feel. Raised from the lowly con- 
dition of a shepherd boy to the high station of a 
great king, he tasted all the joys and sorrows of life, 
and having fallen into the abyss of grievous sin he 
rose once more to the loftiest heights of virtue and 
of sanctity. Thus, if he experienced all the anguish 
of penance, he learned also all the rapture of the 
most fervent love of God, and so every emotion of 
the human heart passed through his great and noble 
soul, and found expression in those divinely inspired 
canticles, the psalms. There is no sentiment, no 
frame of mincl that they do not portray and turn 
again toward God. Their w^ords are ever fresh, ever 
new, a poetry of undying beauty. 

And these psalms, given to us by the Spirit of 
God, were on the lips of the child Jesus during His 
hidden life with Mary and Joseph at Nazareth. He 
sang them with His disciples. He made use of them 
in His Passion and in His last heartrending words 
upon the cross : ''My God, My God, why hast Thou 



380 The Breviary. — The Divine OfUce. 

forsaken Me? Into Thy hands I commend My 
spirit/' So the psalms continued to be the prayer, 
the voice of holy Church ; by them her children im- 
plore light and consolation, medicine in all their 
maladies, weapons and defense against every need; 
for their mystical depths contain the most consol- 
ing secrets of our faith. Our forefathers recited 
these psalms, the saints pondered over them, and the 
martyrs were strengthened by them. Oh, if only 
Christian people would as of old value these 
treasures aright, how greatly would they serve to 
promote a true spirit of faith. 

There was once a monk of Citeaux, around whose 
head a flame was seen to play while he was singing 
the BenedictuSj and when questioned, he replied : 'T 
was thinking that if I were in heaven, it is thus I 
would desire forever to praise God with all the an- 
gels.'' Blessed Stephen of Tournay says of the 
same monastery of Citeaux : "They celebrate the di- 
vine worship there with such dignity and devotion 
that one could believe one heard angels' voices in 
their choir ; by their psalms and h3^mns and spiritual 
canticles they constrain one to praise God in imita- 
tion of the angels." 

In the early days of monastic life, no manuals of 
meditation were required ; the Divine Office sufficed 
the brethren, and afforded them material for rap- 
turous contemplation. 

In this contemplation our fathers used to pene- 
trate deeply into the mysteries of the sacred word, 
and they were wont to draw forth from it ever new 
treasures of light and grace, which caused their 
hearts to overflow with holy enthusiasm and delight. 

The Divine Office, the prayer of the choir, is not 
only the lifelong duty of the monk; it is also his 
school of sanctity, and of the interior life. A mon- 



The Breviary. — The Divine Ofdce. 381 

astery in which the Divine Office is kept up accord- 
ing to the spirit of our holy father must needs flour- 
ish, and bring fruits of virtue to maturity. But it is 
work, and hard work. Prayer is work, honorable, 
useful and necessary, requiring the exercise of all 
our powers, for it directs both body and soul in the 
service of God. ''And let us so stand to sing in the 
choir," says the holy Rule, ''that mind and voice 
may accord together/' "Let us so stand;" that is, 
place ourselves in such a posture as may further 
recollection of spirit; the whole man must pray. 
And this is why the Divine Office in choir has some- 
what of the dramatic about it. It affords little scope 
for individuality — it is an official prayer offered in 
common. The whole choir turn, bend, kneel, rise up 
as one man, with a rhythmic regularity inspired by 
the most lively devotion. The intensity of this de- 
votion will differ, no doubt, in various souls. St. 
Bernard once saw an angel writing down the 
prayers of the monks, some with letters of gold, 
some of silver, others of black ink, or colorless 
w^ater, according as they differed in value before 
God. But it is always a consolation for the weak 
and faltering to know that their prayer, united with 
and borne up by the strong, will reach the ear of 
God; just as their voices, chiming in with the rest, 
are wafted upwards in one common harmony. It 
is as when the eagle bears its young ones aloft upon 
its outstretched wings to accustom them by degrees 
to behold the sun. — From A Day in the Cloister, by 
Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Zbc Spirit ot tbe Bivim ©ffice. 

^^ HE subject of this paper presents a double as- 
^^ pect. We may consider the spirit in which 
the Office has been conceived or composed, and we 
draw thence certain conclusions regarding the spirit 
in which it should be recited. 

I. The Office is, as its name denotes, divine, for 
it is the work of God, opus Dei, compiled from the 
inspired utterances of the Holy Ghost. By far the 
greatest part of our breviary consists of the Sacred 
Scripture — the Psalms, Canticles, lessons of the Old 
aiid New Testaments ; while the remainder, written 
mostly by saintly Doctors of God's Church, comes 
to us under the sanction of an authority guided 
by the Divine Spirit. Thus writes the eminent 
Cardinal Manning: 

''The Divine Office is a part of the divine tra- 
dition. It has been wrought together by the hands 
of men, but those men were saints, and their 
work was under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 
The framing of the ritual may have been the 
work of human hands, but the materials of which 
it is composed are the words of the Spirit of 
God." It is directly divine in its origin, principle, 
and object, while in form it has indirectly the divine 
sanction. 

From the beginning God appointed two forms by 
which man was publicly to recognize and worship 
Him ; namely, by sacrifice and by prayer, by act and 
by zvord. In the Mosaic Law this worship was 



The Spirit of the Divine OMce. 383 

chiefly sacrificial, but public and official prayer by 
the ministers of God also had its due place. The 
Patriarchs were the recognized representatives in 
this regard, and Moses also, as we read, taught the 
people the use of hymns and canticles. 

In the days of Samuel there would seem to have 
existed in the Temple a choir-office, while in David's 
time various psalms were composed which were set 
to a special chant and choirs of Levites and musi- 
cians were appointed to sing them. Thus the ''sacri- 
ftciiim laudis," through vocal offices, was constituted 
by the ordinance of God, as the Royal Prophet 
avows : 'T will sacrifice to Thee the sacrifice of 
praise, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. I 
will pay my vows to the Lord, in the sight of all His 
people, in the courts of the house of the Lord'' (Ps. 
cxv. 17-19). 

In the synagogues the same offices were carried 
out, and we may readily assume that Our Lord often 
joined in them at Jerusalem or Capharnaum and 
elsewhere, thus by His sacred presence sanctify- 
ing and consecrating these hours and forms of 
prayer. 

Thence they were transferred by the apostles to 
the Christian Church for her zvord worship. So we 
find both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the 
Epistles repeated mention of "the Prophets and 
Scriptures" being read in the Temple, of the faithful 
assembling there to unite in prayer and the "sing- 
ing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles." We 
need not therefore wonder at the Church's love and 
veneration for the Psalter, "which has led her to 
make it permeate and kindle every part of her lit- 
urgy, and has so transferred it from the worship of 
the synagogue to her own, that, to use a medieval 
metaphor, the trumpets of the tabernacle have given 



384 The Spirit of the Divine OMce, 

place to the psaltery and song of the Christian 
ritual."' * 

The origin of the Office is then divine — its words 
are inspired, not indeed all in the same degree, but 
they are all, as St. Bernard calls them, ^^voces 
Spifihis Sanctif' 

The object of the Office is also divine ; not only in 
that it makes for our sanctification, but also because 
its chief and primary aim is God and to Him it is 
immediately directed. Nor is it simply in the nature 
of a prayer that we must regard the Office. Prayer 
it is indeed, but much more — it is a special act of 
divine worship, not only in that God is served and 
honored by it; but in a deeper sense it is the work 
of His ordinance, the words of His Spirit, by which 
the Divinity, using human instruments, concentrates 
divine worship within Himself. As He has ordained 
the one great act worship, the clean oblation to be 
offered to His name from the rising to the setting of 
the sun, in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, so has He 
ordained that the word worship, the sacrifice of 
praise, should, through His Church, be perpetually 
oft'ered to Him on high. St. Paul expresses this 
clearly when he says : "By Him therefore let us offer 
the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is to say, 
the fruit of lips confessing to His name'' (Heb. xiii. 

By the offering of the holy Mas.s, which is laid as 
a charge upon the Church, she adequately and fully 
pays the fourfold debt mankind owes its Maker and 
Sovereign Lord. In like manner by the holy Office 
she fulfils the same four ends of glorifying God, 
rendering Him thanks, appeasing Him, and asking 
graces needful for the world. Charged as she is 
with the duty of praise, thanksgiving, and supplica- 
*Dr. Neale, Notes on the Divine OMce. 



The Spirit of the Divine OfHce, 385 

tion to God, for and on behalf of all men, she has 
endowed her ministers with the privilege and duty 
of reciting the liturgical Office, emphasizing the im- 
portance of it, as well as her earnestness in the ful- 
filment of this duty, by enjoining under pain of sin 
that this alone of all their duties must be satisfied 
every day, and day by day. Such is the solemn duty 
of all those consecrated to her ministry. Her 
priests, in fulfilling their obligation, by this means 
become as the soul and voice of creation, or as ''the 
angel with golden censer offering up the prayers of 
all the saints upon the golden altar which is before 
the throne of God." They form the choir which 
voices creation's praises in a grand concert of har- 
mony, everywhere in the identical form and accents 
of worship from the rising to the setting of the sun. 
Thus, without ceasing, the sacrifice of praise is 
joined to the sacrifice of the Eucharist, celebrating 
the perfections and benefits of the Divine Majesty, 
''Dies diei enictat verbum, et nox nocti indicat 
scientiam/' 

The liturgy is the collective utterance to God of 
the mystical body of Christ. It is not merely a pri- 
vate prayer, for the whole Church is the sanctuary, 
and "as we offer this prayer we are never alone," 
says St. Peter Damian, but united in worship with 
the whole choir of God's Church. We pray with 
and for the Church, speaking in union with 
the Incarnate Word. This is expressed in the 
preparatory prayer, ''Domine, in unione illius 
divince intentionis qua ipse in terris laudes Deo 
persolvisti/' 

Christ came on earth to unite man to God, to be 
the type and model of perfection, which the creature 
might imitate, to pray in the highest sense of prayer. 
He came, the second Adam, to be the representative 



386 The Spirit of the Divine Office. 

of the children of the first Adam in a perpetual wor- 
ship of God, and it is for the human race to unite 
itself with Him in this constant prayer. For this 
Christ fitted to Himself the mystic body of His 
Church, upon which, therefore, is the duty of per- 
petual, public, official prayer offered through her 
ministers. 

The chief object, then, of the Divine Office and 
its excellence appears in this, ''that it is from God, 
and puts us in communication with God. It is the 
sacred formula of those conversations with Heaven 
which are authorized by our ministry. It is the au- 
thentic and complete expression of praise, thanks- 
giving, and petition which we offer in the name of 
the faithful." * 

2. From this idea of the sacred Office we may gather 
the spirit which must properly animate us in its 
recitation. We go before God as the organ of Jesus 
Christ, as the representatives of His Church charged 
with a sublime embassy, to treat of interests most 
precious, or to make reparation to the oft'ended 
majesty of God, to make supplication for the graces 
of which the world is in need, or to offer praise 
to the Creator, and thanksgiving for infinite favors. 
What a spirit of piety, earnestness and fervor does 
not this object call for! Still more must we realize 
this if we recollect that we deliver our message in 
the words of His own Son ; "for,'' writes the Abbe 
Gay, "we repeat the very prayers which Christ our 
Lord used in His pilgrimage on earth, which He 
uttered on His own behalf and ours, for the Psalter 
was His book of prayer." The Psalms indeed are 
in various ways the sentiments and expressions of 
Christ, who as the Messias was prefigured in the 
person of David, to whom, most of these prayers are 
*Father Kirwan, in The Tablet. 



The Spirit of the Divine OfUce. 2>^y 

directly ascribed ; and some of them were, we know, 
actually recited by the Son of God in the flesh, and 
uttered from the fulness of His Sacred Heart. A 
deep devotion and reverence for these sublime words 
but fitly characterizes our daily repetition of them. 
''If we keep vigil in the Church, David comes first, 
midst, and last. If early in the morning we seek for 
the melody of hymns, first, last, midst is David 
again. If we are occupied with the funeral solemni- 
ties of the dead, David is first, last, and midst. And 
not in the cities and churches alone, but in the 
forum, in the wilderness, and in the uninhabitable 
regions it is he who again utters the praise of God. 
In monasteries, among tho^e holy choirs of angelic 
chanters, David is first, midst, and last. In the con- 
vents of virgins, where dwell the bands of those who 
imitate Mary ; in the desert, where are men crucified 
to the world, and having their conversation with 
God, first, midst, and last is David. Others at night 
yield to the demands of sleep ; David alone is active, 
and, congregating the servants of God into angelic 
choirs, turns earth into heaven and men into angels.'' 
The true spirit in which our breviary should be re- 
cited is shown in the following extract from an 
admonition of Abbot Cisneros (A. D, 1500) to his 
monks : ''What are we about to do, brethren, at the 
time of the Divine Office, unless it is to appear be- 
fore the face of God and His holy angels, in the 
company of our just and holy brethren — 'in conciliis 
justofum et congregationef '' Then, after urging 
the necessity of prayer as an immediate preparation 
for the holy Office, he concludes, ''Now at the sound 
of the bell, rising from prayer, we should say. This 
is the sign of the great King, let us go and seek His 
face, and offer Him gold, incense, and myrrh — the 
gold of devotion, the incense of reverent attention, 



388 The Spirit of the Divine OMce. 

and the myrrh of manly and respectful demeanor/' 
The holy Office unites us to Jesus Christ in a way 
that no other prayer can do. It breathes the spirit 
of holiness, because of this union, and therefore 
must make for holiness if rightly performed, for as 
the Psalmist says : ''The sacrifice of praise shall glor- 
ify me, and there is the way by which I will show 
him salvation" (Ps. xlix. 23). In his Mirror for 
Monks Blosius warns his brethren : "In the holy 
Office have a care to pronounce and hear the holy 
words reverently, that you may taste how sweet the 
Lord is, and may feel that the word of God hath in- 
comprehensible delight and power. For whatsoever 
the Holy Ghost hath dicftated is indeed life-procur- 
ing food.'' Similarly, in Hilton's Scale of Perfec- 
tion wx read regarding the Office: "Said from a 
burning heart it giveth forth a fragrant smell before 
the face of the Lord Jesus, and before all the court 
of heaven it yieldeth grace unto Jesus, and receiveth 
grace in turn from Him ; it maketh the soul familiar, 
and, as it were, companion with Jesus. Use it who- 
soever can, the work is good and grace-bestowing of 
itself ; it is a rich offering and filled with all the 
fatness of devotion." For the production of such 
effects in the soul there is need of deep appreciation 
and piety ; for where the Spirit of prayer is wanting, 
the soul does not perceive "those things which are 
of the Spirit of God." The mouth indeed speaks, 
but the heart is silent — ''taciti, dum clamarem tota 
die'' (Ps. xxxi.). And the pity of it is that we 
should so often spoil this grand prayer by enter- 
taining sentiments directly opposed to it. We cry 
out with our lips that our souls thirst after God's 
presence, and find rest only in the sanctuary, and yet 
we come before Him with reluctance, and remain in 
His tabernacle only so long as our external ministry 



The Spirit of the Divine Office. 389 

obliges us to do so. Each day we proclaim those 
among us blessed who meditate on His law and sing 
His praises, yet we hurry through the Office with- 
out thought, and frequently our desire at the be- 
ginning of it is that we might have reached the end. 
The admonition which Holy Writ gives as to prayer 
in general is especially applicable to the Divine Of- 
fice : ''Ne sit cor tuum velox ad proferendum ser- 
monem coram Deo; Deus enim est in coelo, et tu 
super terram/' 

The old Saxon Saint, ^Ifric, in his quaint style 
gives us the following lesson : ''When we hear the 
bell ring calling us to Matins, we ought anon as true 
God's knights arise quickly and arm ourselves with 
prayer, haste us to the church, and there we ought 
to lift up the long spear of fervent desire of our 
heart to God, and draw out the sharp sword of the 
word of God, in His holy service, and smite great 
strokes of devout singing and saying thereof, 
whereby our enemies shall be rebuked, and we be 
kept in godly praisings under the banner of His pro- 
tection.'' Such is indeed the character of the exer- 
cise to which our clerical profession calls us daily, 
and by which we are enabled to renew within us the 
spirit awakened by the innate virtue of the conse- 
crated prayer of which Bishop Hedley writes with 
characteristic fervor : ''O blessed words of the 
Psalms, which have been consecrated by the lips of 
the Saviour, which the apostles and martyrs 
have used, and in w^hich the saints of all ages 
have lifted up their hearts to God! Blessed 
and fruitful words, which are continually resound- 
ing day and night all the world over, in emula- 
tion of the ever-increasing song of fhe angels and 
the blessed !" 

To the worthy performance of our duty and privi- 



390 The Spirit of the Divine Office. 

lege in reciting the Divine Office, may we not fitly 
apply the words of St. Paul : ''You are come to 
Mount Sion, to the city of the living God, the heav- 
enly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thou- 
sands of angels and to the spirits of the just made 
perfect''? (Heb. xii. 22.) 

To discharge our duty well in the recitation of 
the Divine Office it is of the utmost importance to 
attend to the presence of God, *'to begin the Office," 
as Bishop Hedley says, ''to continue it, and end it, 
as if we w^ere always in the sight of God and His 
angels.'' In the Office, attention is nearly sure to 
bring with it devotion. St. Charles Borromeo used 
to urge his priests to concentrate their attention 
carefully at the beginning of the Divine Office. He 
himself was accustomed to spend a quarter of an 
hour in mental prayer before beginning Matins and 
Lauds ; and he advised all to renew their attention 
every time they said ''Dens in adjvttoritcm/^ It will 
help us much if we accustom ourselves to make an 
effective act of the presence of God whenever we 
begin to recite the Office. 

For the purpose of keeping up attention during 
the progress of the recitation we may make use of 
various means. 

We are not to be scrupulous about minute atten- 
tion. If we read the words reverently, place and 
circumstances being such as to subject us to no un- 
necessary distraction, and our thoughts being gently 
constrained to union with God, it is enough to satis- 
fy obligation. But the more actual devotion we can 
put into it the better. Thus we may take the words, 
or the general sense, of psalm and respsnsory, and 
apply them to the feast or the mystery of the day; 
or to Our Lord's Passion ; or to God, our Father ; 
or to our last end; or to the Blessed Sacrament; or 



The Spirit of the Divine OMce. 391 

to Our Lady or the saint of the day ; or to our sins, 
our wants, our resolutions. 

Imagine how the Angel of the Schools must have 
lifted up his heart, while reciting the Divine Office. 
Hearken to St. Augustine in his Confessions: ''Oh, 
how fervently I uttered my service to Thee, O my 
God, when I read the Psalms of David — those songs 
of faith, those breathings of piety ! How I was set 
on fire by them, and how I burned to have them 
recited throughout the world, that they might bring 
the human spirit to Thy feet ! How I wept over 
Thy hymns and canticles ! The words of them 
streamed into my ears, and with them came the 
truth into my heart ; and piety grew warm within 
me, and tears flowed, and it was very well with me 
then !"^ 

"^From The Spirit of the Divine OiHce, by C. A. Wheatley, 
Kidderminster, England, in The American Ecclesiastical 
Review, June, 1904. 



CHAPTER XXXVIL 

/IRortification^— a:be Viccceeit^ ot /iRottillcatton, mt> 
in mbat (t donaiata* 

*^^ HE saints and all teachers of the spiritual life are 
^^ unanimous in declaring that mortification is 
the preparation for obtaining the gift of prayer, and 
the means necessary thereto. As parchment is not 
fit to be written upon unless thoroughly clean, 
neither is the soul ready to receive the impression 
of Divine wisdom and of heavenly graces, before all 
sensual inclinations are rooted out. One of the ancient 
Fathers says : ''As one can not see his face in muddy 
water, so the heart that is not purified from those 
earthly inclinations which constantly disquiet it, the 
heart in which vain and unseemly cares are not yet 
silenced can not possibly behold the face of God in 
prayer, that is, can not penetrate into the depths of 
His mysteries, and Almighty God will not reveal 
Himself to such a one." ''The soul is like down,'' 
says one of the Fathers. "If it is perfectly dry and 
nothing clings to it, if it is free from dirt, it 
rises from the earth on the lightest current of air, 
it soars upward and floats on the breeze. But if it 
is wet or clogged by dirt its weight will not allow 
it to rise on high. It remains on the earth, sunk in 
the mud. It is the same with our soul. If pure and 
clean, it mounts on the sweet and gentle zephyrs of 
reflection and meditation. But if it clings with 
love to earthly things, if it is weighed down by pas- 
sion and irregular desires, which prevent its rising 
heavenward, prayer becomes an impossibility." The 
Abbot Nilus says : "If it was forbidden to Moses to 



Mortification. 393 

approach the thorn-bush before having laid off his 
shoes, how can you attain to the sight of God and 
fainihar communing with Him while you are full 
of those passions and inclinations that bring death 
to the soul ?'' 

Mortification is, moreover, the fruit to be gained 
from prayer. The prayer that has not mortification 
for its sister and companion is looked upon by the 
saints as of doubtful value. As, in shaping iron, it 
is not sufficient to soften it in the fiery flames of the 
furnace, but blows of the hammer are necessary to 
give it the desired form ; so, too, is it insufficient to 
soften the heart by prayer and devotion if the ham- 
mer of mortification, also, is not employed to free it 
from what is objectionable, and to impress the vir- 
tues upon it. The sweetness of prayer and the rap- 
ture of divine love serve to mitigate the pains of 
mortification, thus strengthening us to deny our own 
will and conquer the irregular emotions of nature. 
On the wings of mortification and prayer the soul 
soars heavenward. 

Mortification consists in regulating and ruling our 
passions, our evil inclinations, and our disorderly self- 
love. 'Tf any man will come after Me, let him deny 
himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me'' 
(Luke ix. 23). He who once lived riotously but 
now lives chastely and honorably is denying himself 
and taking up his cross. He who once knew no 
measure in self-gratification, who set no bounds to 
his indulgence, but now lives temperately, has taken 
up his cross to follow Christ. He who was formerly 
frail and fickle is now strong and constant, because 
he is taking up his cross daily. To deny one's self 
means to become another man. St. Basil calls atten- 
tion to the fact that Our Lord begins His counsel 
with the words : Deny thyself, and, then only, follow 



394 Mortification. 

Me. We do the first by crushing self-will, by giving 
the deathblow to our bad inclinations and evil de- 
sires. If we wish to follow Christ we must prepare 
the way by means of mortification. As our Lord 
intimates, mortification is the foundation of the 
spiritual life. ''Always bearing about in our body 
the mortification of Jesus'' (2 Cor. iv. 10). This 
is the cross that we must daily take upon our 
shoulders if we wish to follow Christ. Job says 
most truly : ''The life of man upon earth is a 
warfare'' (Job vii. i), and the Apostle Paul de- 
clares : "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
the spirit against the flesh : for these are contrary 
one to another, so that you do not the things that 
you would" (Gal, v. 17). This is the continual war 
which every Christian, and especially every Re- 
ligious, has to wage against self. To overcome self, 
to bridle one's senses, to master one's passions, is far 
greater than subduing others to our will. On this 
point the Wise Man says : "The patient man is better 
than the valiant : and he that ruleth his spirit than 
he that taketh cities" (Prov. xvi. 32). As saints and 
spiritual writers declare : "All our progress, all our 
perfection consists in mortification." St. Jerome 
says : "In just the measure that you overcome self, 
will you advance in perfection." When some one 
was praising another in the presence of St. Francis 
Borgia, and declaring that he was a perfect man, the 
saint remarked : "That is true if he is mortified." 
Blosius compares a mortified servant of God to mag- 
nificent grapes perfectly ripe and sweet ; but the un- 
mortified to unripe fruit, green, hard, bitter, and un- 
palatable, as is said in Isaias : "I looked that it 
should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild 
grapes" (Is. v. 4). The difiference between the 
children of God and the children of the world is that 



Mortification. 395 

the latter always allow themselves to be governed by 
their senses, and do not trouble themselves to prac- 
tice mortification ; but ''they who are Christ's have 
crucified their flesh with the vices and con- 
cupiscences" (Gal. V. 24). They are not ruled and 
guided by the flesh, but by the spirit and by reason. 



I 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Kntctiot auD Ejterior jfflbortitlcatlon. 

^?^HERE are two kinds of self-love, one good, the 
^^ other bad. The good is that by which we aim 
at the end for w^hich God created us, namely, eternal 
life ; the bad is that by which we try to procure for 
ourselves the goods of this world to the injury of 
our immortal soul and the dishonor of God. ''The 
heavenly city," says St. Augustine, ''is formed by 
the love of God, even to the contempt of self; the 
earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of 
God." And Jesus Christ Himself has said : "If any 
man will come after Me, let him deny himself" 
(Matt. xvi. 24). The perfection of the soul consists 
in self-denial. He that does not deny himself can 
not follow Jesus Christ. Love becomes great as 
concupiscence grows less. Love is perfect when 
concupiscence dies ; that is, the less man desires to 
satisfy his own inclinations, so much the more does 
he love God. But when he desires nothing outside 
of God, then he loves God perfectly. In the present 
state of our nature, tainted by sin, it is impossible to 
be entirely free from the temptations of self-love. The 
saints had to contend with their passions. A Re- 
ligious, therefore, must be very watchful to regu- 
late the disorderly emotions of self-love. This is 
done by the practice of interior mortification, which, 
as St. Augustine teaches, puts in order the move- 
ments of the soul. 

How wretched is the soul that permits herself to 
be ruled by her passions ! St. Bernard says that it 
is the enemv in one's own household who hurts 



Interior and Exterior MortiUcation. 397 

most. Satan and the world are our bitter enemies, 
but worse than either is our own self-love. St. 
Mary Magdalene of Pazzi says: ''Self-love in the 
soul is like a worm gnawing at the roots of plants. 
It robs them not only of fruit, but also of life." 
With the Wise Man we must constantly pray 
to the Lord: ''Give me not over to a shameless 
and foolish mind" (Ecclus. xxiii. 6). O my God^ 
do not abandon me to my . foolish passions, which 
will rob me of Thy holy fear, yea, even of my 
reason ! 

Our whole life must be a continued struggle. 
But he who faces the enemy should always be armed 
for self-defense. Let him discard his armor only 
for one day, and on that day will he be overcome. 
So it |s with the soul. She must never cease to 
struggle against her evil inclinations, no matter how 
often she has gained a victory over them. Man's 
passions, frequently conquered though they be, never 
die. "Believe me," writes St. Bernard, "they spring 
up as often as cut down ; and even if apparently 
rooted out, they grow again." All that we can obtain 
in the war with our passions is that their attacks be- 
come less violent, less frequent, and that by degrees 
we come .to conquer them more easily. A monk once 
complained to the Abbot Theodore that, although 
he had combated his evil inclinations nearly eight 
years, he had not succeeded in entirely destroying 
them. The Abbot answered: "O my son, you are 
lamenting over a w^ar of eight years ! I have spent 
sixty years in solitude, and in all that time no day 
has passed on which I have not felt the resistance 
of my passions." Yes, our passions will always 
make themselves felt, but as St. Gregory says, it is 
something quite different merely to see the wild ani- 
mals around us and to hear their roaring, from 



39^ Interior and Exterior Mortification. 

keeping them in the house and indulging them to our 
own destruction. 

Our heart is a garden in which wild and poison- 
ous weeds are always springing up ; consequently, 
we must have ever in hand the knife of holy morti- 
fication to cut them ofif, and root them out. If we 
neglect this, we shall soon find our soul overrun 
with noxious tares and thorns. "Conquer self!" 
this was the word that .St. Ignatius of Loyola con- 
stantly repeated in his admonitions to his brethren. 
Conquer self-love, break your own will, for, as he 
used to say, "the principal reason that so few who 
practice mental prayer arrive at Christian perfection 
is because they take no care to conquer self." The 
saint placed more value on one act of mortification of 
self-will than an hour's prayer abounding in spiritual 
consolation. St. Francis Borgia used to say that 
prayer introduced divine love into the heart, but it 
was mortification that prepared an abode for it, by 
removing all earthly dross that could prevent its 
entrance. He who would draw water from a well 
must use an empty vessel, free from sand and dirt ; 
else he would bring up no water, but mud. To 
make for our sanctification, prayer must be accom- 
panied by mortification. 

iJnterfor if^ortifi'cation. 

There are Religious who are given to a multiplic- 
ity of spiritual exercises. They communicate fre- 
quently, make long prayers, perform fasts and other 
penitential works ; but they neglect to conquer cer- 
tain little passions, rising anger, for instance, aver- 
sion, curiosity, dangerous attachments, etc. They 
do not rule over themselves. They exercise but 
little self-control. They can not endure any kind 
of contradiction, they can not separate from certain 



Interior and Exterior Mortification. 399 

persons, they are not cheerfully obedient to all Su- 
periors alike, nor peacefully submissive to the mani- 
fest will of God. What progress can such souls make 
in perfection ? They wander far from the right path, 
they are always sunk in their own misery. If for 
every Christian it is a fault to seek only his own satis- 
faction in his actions, is it not a far greater one for 
a Religious since he has, in a very special manner, 
consecrated himself to the mortified, the perfect life ? 
"God," says Lactantius, ''leads man by mortification 
to life eternal." The devil, on the contrary, entices 
him to eternal death by the gratification of his in- 
clinations. Even the holiest things must be under- 
taken without attachment of heart, so that if our 
cherished plans do not succeed, or if they are disap- 
proved by obedience, we must be willing to resign 
them tranquilly. Every species of self-love hinders 
perfect union with God ; therefore, we must be firmly 
resolved to combat our evil inclinations that they 
may not gain the victory over us. Exterior, as well 
as interior^ mortification is necessary for perfection, 
though with this difterence, that while the former 
is to be practiced with moderation, the latter requires 
no limitation. Of what advantage in the spiritual 
life is the mortification of the body if unattended 
by that of the interior passions? ''What profit," 
says St. Jerome, "to castigate the body by severe 
fasts, if one is puffed up with pride — unable to brook 
an insult or a refusal?" Of w^hat use is it to ab- 
stain from wine, and yet be intoxicated with anger 
against those that trouble or contradict us? With 
good reason does St. Bernard bemoan those Re- 
ligious who are humble exteriorly, but who inte- 
riorly nourish their passions. They do not eradicate 
their vices ; they only cover them up under the out- 
ward signs of penance. 



400 Interior and Exterior Mortification. 

If, on the contrary, we zealously practice morti- 
fication of self-love, we shall become saints in a 
short time without endangering health, without haz- 
arding humility, because God alone is the witness of 
our interior acts. O what a beautiful harvest of vir- 
tues and merits might we gather if we suppressed 
self-will, curiosity, bitterness of heart, natural in- 
clinations, levity, idle jests, etc. Provided no injury 
to the honor and glory of God is to be feared, we 
should readily yield in time of contradiction. In 
many ways we can daily practice interior mortifica- 
tion. A Religious receives a letter, for instance. 
The desire to read it instantly arises in the mind. 
Let him mortify that desire, that cry of nature, and 
postpone the gratification for a short time. A 
happy little jest rises to the tongue, a beautiful 
flower tempts the hand to pluck it, the eyes are at- 
tracted by some curious sight — be silent, refrain, 
turn away ! A thousand such acts may easily be 
made each day. 

Let us consider now a little more in detail how in- 
terior mortification may be practiced. The first step 
is to examine what passion reigns in the heart and 
frequently leads to a fall, that we may exert every 
effort to conquer it. St. Gregory says we must em- 
ploy the same artifices to conquer Satan that he uses 
against us. He is constantly on the watch to in- 
flame that particular passion to which we are most 
inclined. In like manner should we be on the alert 
to combat that same passion. When the ruling pas- 
sion is overcome, all the others will surrender. But 
let that predominant passion remain master of the 
heart and perfection will never be attained. ''Of 
what use are his powerful wings to the eagle if his 
feet are bound by a cord?'' says St. Ephrem. Oh, 
how many ReHgious are there who, like the eagle, 



Interior and Exterior Mortiiieation. 401 

would soar heavenward were they not tied down by 
earthly attachments ! They can not advance in per- 
fection, they are fettered to the earth. St. John of the 
Cross says that the least thread of attachment is 
sufficient to prevent the soul from rising to God. 
Not only does he who is ruled by passion make 
no progress in the spiritual life ; but, what is far 
more deplorable, he runs the danger of being 
eternally damned. It is, therefore, a pressing 
necessity for Religious to control their predomi- 
nant passions. Without that all other forms of mor- 
tification will be of little avail to their sanctification. 
Let us resolve, then, to fight against, to subdue the 
passion that has the greatest empire over us. A 
resolute will can, with God's help, which is never 
wanting to us, effect whatever it takes in hand. St. 
Francis de Sales was very much inclined to anger ; 
but by the self-control that he faithfully practiced 
he became a model of kindness, patience, and 
meekness. His sweetness has won for him the title 
of ''The rose among the saints." Almighty God fur- 
nished him with numerous occasions for the prac- 
tice of meekness and humility by allowing him to be 
attacked by calumnies, insults, and contempt. Then 
it was that he manfully overcame himself, and put to 
death his ruling passion of anger. When the chief of 
our interior enemies is laid low we must turn our 
weapons against the others : for a single one con- 
tinuing to hold sway in the soul might cause its 
ruin. 

Another important consideration is the necessity 
of w^aging war against our passions while they are 
still in their infancy, as it were, for if they become 
strong by long indulgence it will be very hard to 
overcome them. It may happen on the occasion of 
some slight offence that we feel tempted to reply 



402 Interior and Exterior MortiUcation. 

by a cutting word or contemptuous gesture. The 
inclination must be restrained at once ; from a little 
wound neglected is soon formed an abscess which 
can not be healed. St. Dorotheus relates the follow- 
ing anecdote of a good old monk. He commanded 
one of his disciples to pull up a tender young cypress 
by the roots. The youth accomplished the task with 
great ease. Then the old man ordered him to pull 
up a larger one. But for this his most strenuous 
efforts were in vain. Seeing this, the monk thus 
addressed his young disciple: ''Know that it is just 
so with our passions. It is easy to root them out in 
the beginning, but very difficult when they have, by 
long indulgence, sunk deep in the soil of our heart.'' 

Consider the mortification of self-will in particu- 
lar. Nothing is more injurious to Religious who 
have consecrated their will to Jesus Christ than to 
follow their own will and inclinations. It is against 
self-will, the arch-enemy of the spiritual life, that 
they have fortified themselves by the vow of obedi- 
ence. No one can separate us from Almighty God, 
neither our fellow-beings on earth nor the demons 
in hell. But what creatures outside of us can not do, 
our own self-will can effect. ''Self-will destroys vir- 
tue," says St. Peter Damian, and St. Anselm re- 
marks that as the will of God is the source of all 
good, so the will of man begets all evil. How^ can 
things go well with him w^ho confides in a master 
devoid of reason? St. Bernard says: "Whoever 
constitutes himself his own master and simply follows 
the dictates of self-love submits to a fool." Self-love, 
according to the Abbot Antony, is a wine that in- 
toxicates, so that we recognize neither the worth of 
virtue nor the deformity of vice. 

St. Augustine remarks that the devil became such 
only by his own will. The devil makes use chiefly 



Interior and Exterior Mortification. 403 

of self-will in order to plunge Religious into eternal 
ruin. Cassian relates that the holy Abbot Achilles 
was asked one day by a disciple with what weapons 
Satan fought against Religious. He answered : 
*'The evil one employs against the great ones of the 
world, pride ; against merchants and business men, 
avarice; against the young, the temptations of the 
flesh ; but against Religious, his most effective 
weapon is self-will. It is by this that he generally 
conquers." The Abbot Pastor used to say, as Ru- 
finus relates, that if w^e follow our own will the devil 
no longer struggles with us, for self-will has itself 
become a devil more mahcious than all others. St. 
John Climacus declares that a Religious who, in- 
stead of obeying, despises the guidance of Superiors, 
a Religious who is bent on guiding herselt, needs 
no devil to tempt her, since she exercises toward 
herself the office of the tempter. 

The Holy Ghost admonishes us on this point : "Go 
not after thy lusts, but turn away from thy own 
will" (Ecclus. xviii. 30). This admonition princi- 
pally applies to Religious w^ho have sacrificed self- 
will to God by vowing obedience to Superiors and 
the Rule. As God ought to be the only object of 
the love of a Religious, so is obedience the only way 
to obtain that love. The actions of a Religious 
derive their greatest value from being performed in 
obedience. On the contrary, the greatest faults in 
the actions of such persons are the offspring of 
self-will. Trithemius insists that the devil hates 
nothing more than the practice of obedience. 
When St. Francis de Sales was drawing up the 
Constitutions for his Religious of the Visitation, 
some one suggested to him that it would be 
advisable to let his daughters go barefoot. The 
saint replied with a smile : "You may begin with the 



404 Interior and Exterior MortiUcation. 

feet, but I shall begin with the head.'' St. Philip 
Neri, laying four fingers on his forehead, used to 
say to his penitents: "All holiness is cornprised in 
the breadth of four fingers." The saint meant to 
imply that sanctity consists in the miortification of 
self-will. St. Jerome wrote : ''Thy virtue will in- 
crease in proportion as self-will declines." St. Mary 
Magdalene of Pazzi was accustomed to say that, to 
insure a blessed death, we must permit ourselves to 
be guided simply by Superiors. Mortification of 
self-will should be the chief aim of everv Relis^ious. 
He that is unmindful of this point deserves not to 
be called a Religious, but a sacrilegious person. Can 
there be in truth a greater sacrilege than to take 
back the will once dedicated to Almighty God ? St. 
Bernard's words corroborate this assertion. He 
says : ''There is no greater sacrilege than to snatch 
from God the wall once sacrificed to Him." The 
Holy Ghost tells us by the mouth of Samuel that it 
is a species of idolatry to prefer self-will to obe- 
dience : 'Tt is like the sin of witchcraft to rebel ; and 
like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey" ( i Kings 
XV. 23). St. Gregory applies these words espe- 
cially to disobedient Religious when he says : "Those 
Religious who trust in their own self-love, who 
follow it, and who resist the commands of Superiors^ 
in a certain way commit the crime of idolatry, for 
they adore their own will as their God." St. Paul, 
therefore, orders those monks who are self-willed 
to be separated from the community like lepers, be- 
cause their bad example is infectious. 

The Religious who w^ant to become holy accord- 
ing to their own ideas are they who, as Isaias tells 
us, will say to Jesus Christ on the Day of Judgment : 
"Why have we fasted, and Thou hast not re- 
garded?" (Is. Iviii. 3.) We have fasted, we have 



Interior and Exterior Mortification. 405 

performed penitential works, and Thou hast no re- 
gard to them. What answer will they receive from 
the just Judge? Ah! He will tell them that they 
need hope for no reward for such works, since they 
were performed, not according to the will of God, 
but merely by their own caprice. "Behold on the 
day of your fast your own will is found" (ibid.). 
*'0 what an evil is self-will !" exclaims St. Bernard. 
''What is good becomes evil, if performed from self- 
w^ill, and contrary to obedience." On the other hand, 
the strongest assurance that a soul can have 
that her actions are pleasing to God comes from 
their being performed in obedience. Nicephorus 
relates that the Superior of Simon Stylites, who led 
so extraordinary and penitential a life, standing day 
and night on a pillar under the open sky, wished to 
convince himself whether his manner of life was 
pleasing to God. To what test did he put him? He 
commanded the saint to come down, at once, from 
his pillar, and live like the other monks. As soon 
as St. Sim.on heard the order, he began to de- 
scend from his pillar. Then were addressed to 
him the w^ords : "Father, remain where you are, for 
now we know that it is God's will for you to perse- 
vere in your penitential exercise." We, too, must 
desire holy things, but without attachment to self- 
will. Let us recall the saying of St. Francis de 
Sales : "I desire little, and that little I desire very 
little." By these words the saint gives us to under- 
stand that he did not desire anything through self- 
love, but only for the good pleasure of Almighty 
God. He was prepared to resign any undertaking 
as soon as he saw that it was not in accord with the 
holy will of God. St. Peter Damian writes : "He 
casts aside a heavy burden who renounces self-will." 
"'What tyrant," continues the saint, "is so cruel 



4o6 Interior and Exterior Mortification. 

toward Religious as the self-will by which they are 
ruled ? Their desires can not be gratified in the con- 
vent ; therefore those unhappy souls are restless and 
dissatisfied, often experiencing in themselves a little 
hell." St. Eutychius says : ''Of what use are ex- 
terior silence and retirement if the heart is a theater 
in which the passions are engaged in a fierce 
struggle? Outwardly there is peace, but inwardly 
raging storms." 

''Whence proceeds our unrest," asks St. Bernard, 
"but from attachment to our own will?" The an- 
cient Fathers were accustomed to say that a monk 
who knows not how to overcome self-will can never 
persevere in the religious life ; or if he should perse- 
vere, it would be without interior peace and without 
progress in virtue. Attachment to self-will is the 
secret of unhappiness among so many Religious. 
Let us hear w^hat St. Magdalene of Pazzi said in one 
of her ecstasies when speaking of the damage in- 
flicted by self-will on Religious. 'T see," said she, 
"a crowd of souls. I see one who, when she receives 
Thee,0 sweet, Eternal Word, is interiorly recollected. 
But within an hour she has lost her peace of soul, her 
serenity of mind, if things do not go in accordance 
with her desires. I see another all on fire with holy 
love during Mass ; but soon after, if told of a fault, 
she loudly proclaims her innocence and in so doing 
displays pride and self-love. I see another who, it 
would seem, wishes to rival St. Antony in austerity 
of life. But should obedience forbid her penitential 
works, she becomes obstinate, she will not submit. 
Another appears grave and mortified in the refec- 
tory, but she takes complacency in her mortifica- 
tions. She would love to be looked upon as better 
than her neighbors. If she is treated with some 
little consideration, she savs her Sisters are too in- 



Interior and Exterior Mortification. 407 

diligent; but if she feels the lack of anything she 
looks upon herself as neglected. Another is ever on 
the watch to display her learning. One might think 
that she excelled St. Augustine in knowledge. Her 
speech is full of subtlety, by which she hopes to 
make her perfection shine forth. Another is 
always ready to renounce her own comfort in the 
service of her Sisters; but then she wants to be 
praised and flattered for it.'' It was of such souls 
that Our Lord said to the saint : ''They desire My 
Spirit, but they desire it in such a way as is pleasing 
to themselves. They thereby become incapable of 
ever receiving it." 

They who wish to become saints and to enjoy true 
peace must earnestly strive to renounce self-will at 
every turn, and to be faithful to every iota of the 
Rule. This is what they do who aim at perfection — 
nothing for their own sake, but all to please God. 
In this way they put aside their vain desires and in- 
clinations. Worldlings are ever on the alert to 
gratify self-will, but the saints watch to mortify it. 
Yes, they seek opportunities to deny themselves. 
St. Andrew Avellino, as we read in the breviary, 
made a vow^ always to resist self-will. Let us, at 
least, daily practice a certain number of acts of self- 
denial. Let us reflect that in the practice of obedi- 
ence we gain more than from many penitential 
works and pious exercises prompted by self-w^ill. 
St. John Climacus says : ''Let no day go by with- 
out trampling under foot your own will. The 
day upon which you are not faithful to this ad- 
vice will be a day in which you are not a Re- 
ligious." St. Magdalene of Pazzi looked upon as lost 
the day on which she had not conquered in some 
way her own will. St. Catharine of Sienna heard 
these words from Our Lord : "Think of Me, and I 



4o8 Interior and Exterior Mortification. 

will think of thee; think of doing My will, and I 
will think of what is for thy good/' 

Lord, give me courage to break my will in all 
things, to trample upon my own desires. In all that 
I do I will think only of doing Thy will. 

IBrUxiox il^ortification. 

There is no escape for us. We, poor children 
of Adam, must wage a continual war till death 
— "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the 
spirit against the flesh" (Gal. v. 17). Either the 
soul will rule the body, or the body the soul. We 
must, therefore, treat our body as a rider his un- 
manageable horse. He holds it in curb constantly, 
that it may not throw him. To those sensual men 
who ridicule the servants of God for mortifying the 
body, St. Bernard makes reply : ''We are cruel only 
to our body when we torment it with works of pen- 
ance ; but you are far more cruel to yourselves when 
you satisfy the concupiscence of the body, in that 
you doom it, with the soul, to everlasting pains in 
eternity.'' A very pious hermit who practiced num- 
berless penitential exercises gave a wise answer, as 
Father Rodriguez tells us, to those who asked him 
why he so persistently mortified his body: *T tor- 
ture that which tortures me." Similar to this was 
the reply of the Abbot Moses to him who censured 
his severity : ''When my passions rest, then shall I, 
also, rest. When my flesh no longer torments me, 
then I shall cease to torment it." 

The objection that perfection is not attained by 
the castigation of the body, but by the mortification 
of the will, is irrelevant. Although of a very 
delicate constitution, St. Aloysius had so great 
a desire for corporal mortification that he eagerly 
sought after penitential works. Some one re- 



Interior and Exterior Mortification. 409 

marked to him one day that sanctification does not 
consist in such austere exercises, but in the denial 
of self-will. The young saint wisely replied to the 
objection in the words of the Gospel: ''These things 
you ought to have done, and not to leave those un- 
done" (Matt, xxiii. 23). The saint wished to say: 
''Yes, it is necessary to mortify self-will, but the 
body, also, must be mortified in order to restrain it 
and subject it to reason.'' It is in this spirit that 
the Apostle cries out: "I chastise my body, and 
bring it into subjection'' (i Cor. ix. 2y) . St. John 
of the Cross says of those that are enemies to 
penitential works, of those that even assume the 
guidance of souls, though despising mortification of 
the body and advising their penitents against it : 
"Believe not those teachers that cry out against 
mortification of the flesh. Believe them not, even 
if they should corroborate their teaching by 
miracles." 

St. Peter of Alcantara often addressed his body 
in these words : "Rest assured, my body, that in 
this life T shall give thee no peace. Here on earth 
thou must expect only sufferings and torments from 
me. But if we get to heaven, thou shalt enjoy a rest 
that will know no end." The Lives of the Saints 
abound with anecdotes regarding the penitential 
works performed by the heroic champions whose 
deeds they record. In view of what the Saints 
have done, we ought to be ashamed of our reluct- 
ance to mortify ourselves, our tenderness toward 
our rebellious flesh. We read in the lives of the 
fathers of the desert of a famous monastery whose 
inmates never tasted meat, nor fruit, nor wine : 
some took food only every evening, others only after 
a severe fast of two or three days. All were 
clothed in garbs of penance, in which they even 



410 Interior and Exterior Mortification, 

took their rest at night. We can not, indeed, de- 
mand such austerity of the ReHgious of our day. 
But would it be too much for Rehgious to make 
use of the disciphne once a week ? To wear a httle 
penitential cord? To abstain occasionally from 
fruit and sweetmeats? To fast every Saturday on 
bread and water, or, at least, through devotion to 
Mary, to be satisfied with one dish? 

''But," it may be objected, 'T am sick, and my 
confessor has forbidden me works of penance.'' 
Very well ! Be obedient, but accept patiently the 
sufferings and inconveniences connected with your 
sickness, and support cheerfully the discomforts of 
the weather, of excessive heat or cold. If you 
can not chastise the body with self-imposed pen- 
ances, refuse it, at least, some lawful satisfaction 
from time to time. When St. Francis Borgia went 
hunting with his falcon, we are told that, at the mo- 
ment it seized its prey, the saint cast down his eyes, 
thus depriving himself of the satisfaction the sight 
would have given him. St. Aloysius, also, con- 
demned himself not to glance around when present 
at court festivals. Why can we not perform similar 
little acts of mortification? If the body is refused 
lawful gratification, it will never demand the unlaw- 
ful. They, on the contrary, who seek after all law^- 
ful enjoyments, will not be slow in allowing them- 
selves some that may be unlawful. Forbidden joys 
will rise up to tempt them; will the}^ be strong 
enough to reject them? 

We must be careful, while curing bodily ills, not 
to become sick in soul. He will alw^ays be sick who 
does not mortify the flesh. St. Bernard says : 'T 
compassionate the mxaladies of the body, but far 
more those of the soul." O how often does some 
trifling indisposition serve as an excuse for a self- 



Interior and Exterior Mortification. 411 

indulgence in no wise necessary! St. Teresa very 
earnestly exhorted her Religious on this point. She 
says : ''One day we absent ourselves from the Office 
because we have a headache ; the next, because we 
have had it; and the third, for fear that it may re- 
turn. We have not entered the convent to indulge 
ourselves, but to die for Jesus Christ." St. Bernard 
severely censured those that take inordinate care of 
their health. "They are the scholars of Galen and 
Hippocrates," he said, ''and not the disciples of 
Jesus Christ. It is far better for the peace of your 
soul that you shun all singularity not absolutely 
necessary, and follow the community." St. Basil, 
also, admonished his Religious to be as much as 
possible content with the common life. 

To be satisfied with the ordinary fare and not to 
ask for exemptions from the Rule is far better than 
long fasts and severe disciplines. It is an incon- 
gruity to practice such penance and then to demand 
special privileges in regard to food and clothing. 
It is just in this way that tepidity enters into many 
religious houses. O let us be on our guard not to 
jeopardize health of soul and even the crown of life 
by being too solicitous for the welfare of the body. 

Let us resolve, also, to bear sickness patiently, for 
otherwise we shall derive little or no profit from it. 
Accept with equanimity, also, the mistakes or 
the carelessness of physicians and nurses. Do 
not complain, do not find fault. We read in 
the life of the Abbot Stephen, one of the 
fathers of the desert, that, being sick on one occa- 
sion, his attendant made him a cake. But instead of 
using the proper oil in its preparation, he took lin- 
seed oil by mistake, which is very bitter. The Abbot 
took the cake presented him, ate a piece, and said not 
a w^ord. Again the Brother made a cake and with 



412 Interior and Exterior Mortification. 

the same oil. When the Brother perceived that the 
Abbot merely tasted it, he said : ''Father, do eat the 
cake. It is good,'' and, to encourage him, he took a 
morsel himself. But finding how bitter it was, he 
almost lost his senses from fright, and cried out: 
''Lord, have mercy on me! What have I done!'' 
The good Abbot tried to pacify him, saying: "Be 
not troubled, my son ! it was God's will that you 
should make this mistake. No harm will come from 
it." Let us, then, patiently accept sickness. It will 
lead us to spiritual perfection far more surely than 
any voluntary works of penance. 

The mortification of the flesh keeps it from revolt- 
ing, as the Wise Man says : "He that nourisheth his 
servant delicately from his childhood, afterwards 
shall find him stubborn" (Prov. xxix. 21). O how 
conducive to the welfare of the soul are restraints 
imposed upon the body and its senses. They 
prevent sensual joys, which wound, and often 
kill, the soul. "The wounds of love," says Origen, 
"often prevent those of the body from being felt." 
By mortification here on earth we can atone for our 
sins, and discharge the temporal punishment due to 
them. He who has offended God must, even after 
the remission of his sins, satisfy Him by temporal 
punishment ; and he who fails to make such satis^- 
faction in this life must do so in the next by endur- 
ing the pains of purgatory, whose intensity is in- 
finitely greater than any that can be imagined on 
earth. "They . . . shall be in very great tribula- 
tion, except they do penance from their deeds" 
(Apoc. ii. 22). When suffering of any kind comes 
upon us, let us endure it patiently, if not joyfully. 
Let us imagine that it is going to be prolonged fif- 
teen or twenty years, and let us encourage our- 
selves with the thought: "This is my purgatory. 



Interior and Exterior Mortification. 413 

Not the body, but the spirit shall be victorious." 
Finally let us act in accordance with the following 
suggestion of St. Francis de Sales : ''The mortifi- 
cations which come to us from God, or from men 
by His permission, are more precious than those 
which are the ofifspring of our own will. Hold it as a 
rule, that the less we do from choice or our own 
taste, the more we shall find in our actions of good- 
ness, of solidity, of devotion, and of profit." 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

/llbortltKcation ot tbe Senses auD Ibuman SnttctirxQ* 

^^ HE following conference of Pere Eymard was 
^^ addressed to his Religious, the Fathers of the 
Blessed Sacrament. On account of its forceful 
thoughts on mortification, it recommends itself to 
all Religious, in particular at the opening of the 
Lenten season : 

We have said that it is necessary to give one's 
heart to God, that He demands it absolutely for 
Himself ; but, that this gift of the heart may be un- 
remitting, a constant attitude of soul must be main- 
tained of offering one's self to Him by a love of 
generosity and sacrifice. This love is the spirit of 
penance, the mortification of love. It is the true 
road to holiness. All without that is trifling, ways 
more or less flowery made only to amuse. All other 
means are child's play in the service of God. 

I. Now, in order to belong entirely to Our Lord, 
it is absolutely necessary to dedicate to Him our body 
and our senses, and to do that w^e must be their mas- 
ters. Cost what it may, we must have in our own 
keeping the keys of our house ; we must hold our 
body under the empire of duty, of the will, and of 
the grace of God. 

The body has neither intelligence nor faith ; there- 
fore the will must rule and lead it. It is a beast, 
which yields only to blows. It does not know 
sobriety and honor, it cares not for virtue, and of its 
own disorderly nature it obstinately tends to its 
own satisfactions. It seeks the sensible good, its 
own good, and with all its strength it rushes to the 



Mortification of the Senses. 415 

gratification of its own desires. If reason opposes 
it, it tries to elude it and attain the object of its 
concupiscence in spite of remonstrances. It is a 
hard struggle, and if, unhappily, the spirit connives 
with it, we are lost. This is the reason that interior 
mortification is not sufficient. 

The body must be kept in subjection that it may 
not betray us. One with a very strong will backed 
by a very great love might, perhaps, reach sanctity 
without great bodily mortification ; but, as a general 
rule, the soul is safer behind closed gates and well- 
guarded ramparts. 

The, evil man ought to be continually repressed, 
kept down, mortified, because he has only brutal 
instincts. The spirit ought to be directed, elevated 
to God; the body subjected and mortified. It is not 
necessary to constrain the spirit, to stifle it by fear, 
but to direct it constantly to God. 

The will, which is the royalty of man, should 
have for only end the will of God, and be constantly 
united with and submissive to Him. The will 
should be the mistress of both the mind and the 
heart. It is the sovereign, and it can do all with 
the grace of God. The Christian will is admirable. 
Clothed with the strength of God Himself, it knows 
no obstacle ; for God is with the will to conquer 
when the will is with God to be submissive to Him. 

In all his epistles, St. Paul inculcates the cruci- 
fixion of the flesh, of the senses, of the old man. It 
must be reduced to slavery. He will never be a man 
of virtue who has not gained the entire mastery over 
it. In that consists the exterior exercise and the 
proof of the virtue of mortification. 

2. There is rampant in the world a heresy that 
works serious ravages with morality. It teaches 
that there is no such thing as original sin. The body 



4i6 MortiUcation of the Senses. 

as well as the soul, it says, is in its natural rectitude. 
All their instincts are, then, good, and they must be 
gratified. Thus does this heresy legitimatize the 
most deplorable excesses. If there was no fall, what 
need of reparation ? Thus it denies the necessity of 
Christian mortification. This error has glided even 
into piety. It has invaded the direction of souls, 
veiling itself a little, of course, and not exposing its 
principles so openly as to arouse distrust. We read 
in books and we hear certain confessors say that ex- 
terior mortification is not necessary. To this we 
reply : Mildness belongs to Almighty God. It is for 
Him to insinuate His sweetness into the soul. in or- 
der to encourage and recompense ; but it is for man 
to cooperate by mortifying and crucifying himself. 
He has been condemned to eat his bread by the sweat 
of his brow. The earth is accursed for him, crea- 
tures are a continual occasion of sin for him. He 
must separate from them in order not to rest in 
them and prefer them to God. How can he reach 
this point without the mortification of the senses? 

Let us remark that man is constantly drawn down 
by the body. The vices of the soul are materialized, 
as it were, in the senses, and become more tenacious 
and culpable. If we gave them not that exterior 
life, they would more quickly die. 

Thus pride which is not allowed to manifest itself 
by vanity, by seeking the first places and honors, 
soon disappears. By rejecting praise and the ex- 
terior marks of vanity, we stifle pride in itself. 

What shall we say of the other vices, of anger, 
sloth, and above all, of the shameful vice? Do they 
not seek to make their seat, their center, in the 
senses? The body is their pleasure-ground. They 
feed on it, live on its sensations. They cast in it 
their deep roots. 



Mortification of the Senses. 417 

Hear St. Paul calling for the chastisement of its 
members, chastising his body, that body of death : 
^'Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death?" "I see another law 
in my members fighting against the law of my 
mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is 
in my members" (Rom. vii. 23, 24). ''But I chas- 
tise my body and bring it into subjection" (i Cor. 
ix. 2y). The great Apostle gives this beau- 
tiful definition of the Christian : ''He is a 
man crucified in his flesh, and living of the virtue 
of the love of God." This speaks of corporal 
mortification for all men. It is an echo of the Pre- 
cursor of Our Lord — "Do penance and turn from 
your evil ways ! Bring forth fruits worthy of pen- 
ance" — ^that is, expiate by humiliation, by fasting, 
sackcloth and ashes, the sins of your senses. As 
guilt has appeared, so let these fruits of penance ap- 
pear. The Church, inspired by Our Lord, exacts 
corporal penance — fasts, public prayers, solemn ex- 
piation. This authority speaks loudly against the 
doctors of sensualistic piety. Conversing with a 
visitor in the parlor, we tarry some minutes after 
the bell has rung in order not to appear rude, or to 
show more respect and deference to our friend. 
But the good God who calls us ! Ah, well. He will 
wait. 

Again, we want to be treated like princes. Noth- 
ing must be wanting to us. We must be served 
promptly, and comfortably cared for. The religious 
life is a Calvary, a school of suflfering, but some 
wish to make it a bed of sloth. As soon as anything 
is wanting, they become impatient, they murmur. 
They proclaim their rights. They have them al- 
ways in hand like a buckler. Were we so well off 
before entering Religion that we never wanted for 



4i8 Mortification of the Senses. 

anything? Perhaps we sprang from a laboring 
family. In our childhood we had to work hard to 
help gain bread for the rest. Have we entered re- 
ligion to fare better than in our own home? Better 
a hundred times had we remained where we were! 

Let us persevere. The religious life is a death, 
but a death that leads to life. Let us look upon it as 
such, and may the love that crucified Our Lord 
fasten us to the cross with Him ! 

3. Corporal mortification is, then, lawful and even 
necessary. It is for all times and all persons. Let 
us practice it, for we have need of it. We shall ad- 
duce some fresh motives. Our body is evil, infected 
by sin, and full of wicked instincts. It. must be puri- 
fied and restored to health by a tempest of blows, 
just as the sick are purged to carry off violently the 
bad humors gathered in them. 

We have sinned not only in our origin, but actu- 
ally by our actions, by our senses. We must, then, 
renew them in the mortification of Jesus Christ, for 
we have corrupted an already vitiated nature. 

Every sin deserves a punishment equal to its mal- 
ice. The voluntary reparation ought, then, to be 
equivalent to the punishment that justice demands. 
If we have committed one single mortal sin, we have 
deserved hell. How shall we indemnify for our es- 
cape from hell? 

Should we have only venial sins, how shall we 
compensate for the flames of purgatory? 

God has pardoned us, it is true ; and we are 
restored at once to the joy of the angels as if we had 
never sinned. But the satisfaction — who will make 
that ? 

We ought to have our sins always before our 
eyes, to do penance for them; for true conversion 
consists not only in never again sinning, but in re- 



MortiUcation of the Senses. 419 

pairing the evil we have done. Let us purify our- 
selves, or God will purify us by His chastisements 
either in this life or in the other. Because w^e fail to 
do penance He Himself often puts His hand to the 
work. Look, we say, at such a person! How 
greatly he suffers, how much he is persecuted ! He 
does not deserve it. It is indeed possible that his 
afflictions may be a test of his love, but frequently 
they are the expiation of his sins. God is making 
him do penance because he forgets his debt to His 
justice. 

Temptations assail us, and we suffer. They are 
long and wearying; they are a real torture, we say. 
But have we never consented, never committed sin ? 
Let us expiate now. God ic inflicting the chastise- 
ment that we have not had the courage to inflict on 
ourselves. But is it well to have temptations? 
Yes ; it redeems the past and keeps us humble. It 
makes us do penance and forces us to struggle when 
w^e would rather rest. 

There is, above all, a kind of trial that brings 
much suffering, namely, persecutions and calumnies 
that come from good people. Nothing gives so 
much pain. God sometimes permits the very best 
people to make a mistake in their judgments, and 
persecute us in spite of our innocence in order to 
purify us more perfectly. 

Sickness and physical sufferings are another form 
of corporal expiation which God imposes. We do 
not seek them any more than temptations and perse- 
cutions. But if they come we must thank the mercy 
of God for them. He is making us do penance now 
that He may spare us later. 

Lastly, it is not sufficient to embrace works of cor- 
poral mortification because we have sinned. That 
is simple justice. That is not enough. If we want 



420 Mortification of the Senses. 

to do only that, it was hardly worth our while to en- 
ter Religion. And, besides, this penance is all for 
ourselves. It is to make us escape future pains and 
procure our salvation. 

We must have the mortification of Jesus Christ, 
who chose suffering not through necessity, but 
through love, because He saw in it the means of 
demonstrating more clearly His love for His Father 
and for us. This mortification should be considered 
a virtue to be acquired. We should say : "Even had 
I no sin to expiate, I wish to mortify myself, be- 
cause Jesus Christ has given me the example. He 
w^as scourged and crucified. He endured hunger and 
thirst, cold and nakedness with joy for the love of 
God His Father. I wish to do as He did.'' 

This is the true, the beautiful motive of mortifi- 
cation. Let us embrace it. Let us clothe ourselves 
w^ith the garments of Jesus Christ, in which alone 
shall we be pleasing to the heavenly Father, that is, 
the robes of mortification and crucifixion. 

4. How shall we practice this virtue? By never 
seeking enjoyment; by depriving our body of all that 
in which it would take pleasure ; by never seeking 
our own satisfaction, neither in self nor in creatures ; 
by never desiring the praise of men ; by mortifying 
our appetite, not so much in the quantity as in the 
quaHty of our food ; by embracing, with permission, 
the corporal mortifications and humiliations so loved 
by the saints. We may do all that without falling 
sick, we may be sure. 

Let us do it, then. Without it, all our professions 
of love for God are but illusions; and were it not 
that God knows our ignorance they would be 
insults. 

Some say that it is hard to mortify one's self con- 
tinually. We know it. But we must carry our cross 



M or M cation of the Senses. 421 

daily, we must constantly have our sword in hand. 
Our debts can not be paid with sentiments and 
words of love, but with penance. That is the money 
of Calvary. 

In the first place, we must perform all the mortifi- 
cations of our state of life. They oblige before all 
others, and it would be wrong to neglect them for 
others. After that we must be on the lookout for 
penance. We must be ingenious in punishing self, 
in immolating our body to God by sacrifices inces- 
santly renewed. 

Supplementary extracts from other spiritual 
writers are here appended for the reader's reflec- 
tion on the subject of 

?^uman Sufferins as a Source of ^zxlt antr iSlessings. 

Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., in De Torrente, says: 
"The right view of suffering is that of an expia- 
tion, not only for our own sin, but for the world's 
sin too. It is an expiation and a redemption, where- 
by the effects of sin are wiped away, and the crea- 
tion is again to become a kingdom of God. All suf- 
fering centers in the supreme tragedy of Calvary, 
and when borne in a Christian spirit may be called 
a continuation of that divine sacrifice whereby the 
world is cleansed of its stain. 

''Wherefore as regards those who suffer : if they 
rebel against their lot, they are as those who deny 
their corporate responsibility and shirk their burden ; 
they are traitors not only to the divine Redeemer, 
but to all suffering humanity. But if they accept the 
chalice of pain as Christ accepted it, they become 
truly compeers wuth Christ in the new kingdom of 
God, 'sitting at His right hand and at His left,' ac- 



422 Mortification of the Senses. 

cording to their merit. These are truly the co- 
workers of Our Saviour in the regeneration of the 
world. The innocent babe that dies in agony gains 
something of the martyr's glory ; its suffering is the 
payment of a debt not its own, and yet its own be- 
cause it is one of mankind; and it becomes more 
closely allied to Christ because of its suffering. The 
man or woman consciously accepting the cross, with 
perhaps its nameless horrors, becomes thereby a 
leader among men, because bearing willingly the 
burden of men ; and according to the simplicity of 
their acceptance is the degree of their eternal glory. 
No wonder then that so many Christians have re- 
garded it as a privilege to suffer, and have envied 
those who suffered, not from morbid sentiment, but 
from a healthy recognition of Christian principles. 
'These are they who have washed their garments in 
the blood of the Lamb. Their youth is renewed 
like that of the eagle ; as the lily shall they flourish in 
the city of the Lord.' " 

Commenting on the words of Jesus to His disci- 
ples : "My chalice indeed you shall drink," Father 
Gallwey, S.J., writes in The Watches of the Passion: 
''To His chosen ones, to those to whom He after- 
wards said, T will not now call you servants, but I 
have called you friends,' the grand and special 
promise that He makes is this : 'You shall, I promise 
you, before you die, drink of My chalice.' To His 
own most blessed Mother, as they conversed to- 
gether in Nazareth, this, doubtless, was the assur- 
ance that He often repeated in order to console her, 
that she should be with Him to the end, and share 
His bitter chalice to the dregs. His golden promise 
afterwards to St. Paul was, T will show him how 
great things he must suffer for My name's sake' 
(Acts ix. i6). 



Mortification of the Senses. 423 

''How blind, then, are we if we believe that every 
suffering is a calamity and a proof of God's wrath, 
and that prosperity is a sure sign of His favor ! 

"(a) He sends suffering in His mercy to atone 
here for past sin, to do here quickly the slow work 
of purgatory ; 

''(b) He sends suffering also to prevent sin, and 
to draw us out of sin, as suffering brought the 
prodigal hom.e to Him ; 

''(c) Lastly, He sends suffering to His chosen 
ones as to St. Paul ; and these chosen ones then be- 
come, like Himself, Saviours unto many." 

Commenting on the words of Jesus regarding the 
illness of Lazarus : ''This sickness is not unto death, 
but for the glory of God ; that the Son of God may 
be glorified by it," the same author writes : ''He said 
to the messengers from Mary and Martha, 'This 
sickness is for the glory of God.' The sick and the 
sorrowful and the suffering so often jump to the 
conclusion : 'This trouble is sent me as a chastise- 
ment' — and they despond. So, too, we are apt to 
judge of other sufferers. Thus, when the disciples 
saw the man born blind, they at once asked : 'Rabbi, 
who hath sinned, this man or his father, that he 
should be born blind ? ' (John ix. 2.) We come into 
the world with a disease upon us, which inclines us 
to believe without doubting that poverty, sickness, 
pain, and disgrace are always curses, and a chastise- 
ment of sin. It takes a long time and much labor 
and a strong grace to convince us that if, for Him- 
self and His Mother, Our Lord selected poverty and 
pain and the bitter chalice, these things must surely 
be something better than curses. 'This sickness is 
not unto death, but for the glory of God.' What a 
golden lesson for the sick ! This sickness is sent 
that the Son of God may be glorified in you. You 



424 Mortification of the Senses. 

would prefer health, but you will give great glory 
to your Creator and your Father in heaven if you 
reverently say : 'Father, not my will, but Thine be 
done !' Fix well in your mind how very much Our 
Lord is glorified by the patience of the sick and the 
charity of those who nurse." 

St. Francis de Sales says, in The Mystical Flora 
(translated by Clara Mulholland) : ''As the juice of 
the vine, if left in the grape too long, corrupts and 
is spoiled, so the soul of man, if left in its pleasures, 
in its desires and longings, becomes corrupted ; but 
if crushed by tribulation, it gives forth a sweet bev- 
erage of penance and love. 

"Lilies that grow among thorns are the whitest; 
roses near a stream smell the sweetest, and get the 
scent of musk. 'What doth he know that hath not 
been tried?' (Ecclus. xxxiv. 9.) 

"This life is such that we must eat more worm- 
wood than honey. But He for whom we have re- 
solved to cherish holy patience in the midst of all 
our troubles will give us the consolation of His Holy 
Spirit in His own time. 

"The crown of the bride ought not to be softer 
than that of the bridegroom. 'As the lily is among 
thorns, so is My beloved . among the daughters' 
(Cant. ii. 2). It is the natural place for this flower; 
it is the fittest also for the spouse. 

"It is a good omen for this soul that she has suf- 
fered many afflictions ; for, having been crowned 
with thorns, we must believe that she will be 
crowned with roses. 

"How blessed are those who rejoice in afflictions, 
and who change wormwood into honey ! When 
persecutions and contradictions threaten us we 
must retire with our affections under the shadow of 
the holy cross, by a true confidence 'that to them 



Mortification of the Senses. 425 

that love God, all things work together unto 
good/ " 

Father Joseph Egger, SJ., in God and Human 
Suffering, tells us : ''As a strong antiseptic prevents 
the growth of germs of disease, so suffering checks 
the taint of base and selfish feelings, w^hich so easily 
insinuate themselves into our hearts, and impair the 
purity of our motives and intentions. Suffering 
chastens the soul and its aspirations, the mind and 
its views, the heart and its affections. Whatever 
tends to free us from selfish motives must help to 
increase the merit of our thoughts, words, and 
actions. 

"Suffering increases merit by insuring not only 
greater purity, but also greater earnestness of mo- 
tive. It has a bracing influence upon the will, and 
gives tone and vigor to its exercise. DiflSculties and 
sufferings bring out manliness and strength of will 
and nobility of soul. They try earnestness of pur- 
pose. They are an unmistakable test of solid virtue. 
There is beauty and merit in each least aspiration 
of virtue breathed on the playful wing of joy, but 
there is greater and more solid merit in the depth 
and vigor of determination evinced in the practice 
of virtue under difficulties, temptations and trials. 
There is no trial, temptation, or suffering which can 
not be turned into a blessing by the will of a con- 
scious sufferer." 

Bishop Hedley says, in his Retreat: ''As we learn 
from the saints, suffering gives a certain kind of in- 
tensity to acts of the will which nothing else can 
give. It is this which recommended it especially to 
a Heart desirous of proving to men the reality and 
the depth of its love. 'The first cause of the Passion' 
[of our Lord], says St. Thomas Aquinas, 'was that 
He wished it to be known how much God loved 



426 Mortification of the Senses. 

man.' It is not difficult to understand the connec- 
tion. An act of the will, or, as we say, of the heart, 
may be strong and intense ; but unless it is done un- 
der stress of pain, it is wanting in a certain species 
of intensity. There are numbers of pious hearts 
who have been turned away from God by suffering. 
Self and its claims to attention have been too strong ; 
and then piety has given way to self-pity, to mur- 
muring, to resistance, to bitterness. It is thus with 
many who have to undergo punishment, with many 
of the young, unless their punishment is judiciously 
managed, and they are induced to accept it. 

''Punishment and pain in general, far too fre- 
quently, embitter the heart, turn it from its last end, 
and harden it in perversity. But if a man under suf- 
fering have the light and the grace to accept it in 
submission, in resignation, and with a closer move- 
ment to the bosom of our heavenly Father, then 
never, never has his love of that Father in heaven 
been more thorough, more effective, and more in- 
tense. It need not be added that this mysterious ele- 
ment of suffering with which Jesus willed to raise to 
a whiter heat the acts of His Sacred Heart, is also 
marvelously adapted to draw to Him the hearts of 
all men.'' 

Our Blessed Saviour knew that sorrow, suffer- 
ings, and tribulations would come to some extent 
into every man's life ; He knew that there was love 
and wisdom in all of God's dispensations, though 
hidden at times under rude appearances ; He came 
in His love to suffer for our salvation, but also to 
give us an example how to bear our sufferings, how 
to view them and how to profit by them ; He came 
in His love to show us how to weave, with our bleed- 
ing fingers, out of the thorns which sin has sown 
on earth a crown of eternal glory for ourselves. 



MortiUcation of the Senses. 427 

Thomas a Kempis, in The Follozving of Christ, 
says in reference to ''the royal way of the cross" :. 
''To many this seems a hard saying: 'Deny thyself, 
take up thy cross, and follow Jesus' (Matt. xvi. 24). 

"But it will be much harder to hear that last 
word : 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire' (Matt. xxv. 41). 

"For they that at present willingly hear and fol~ 
low the word of the cross shall not then be afraid of 
eternal condemnation. 

"Take up, therefore, thy cross and follow Jesus, 
and thou shalt go into life everlasting. 

"He is gone before thee carrying His own cross ; 
and He died for thee upon the cross that thou 
mayst also bear thy cross and love to die on the 
cross. 

"Because if thou die with Him thou shalt also 
Hve with Him, and if thou art His companion in 
suffering thou shalt also partake in His glory (2 
Cor. i. 7). 

"Behold the cross is all, and in dying to thyself 
all consists, and there is no other way to life and to 
true internal peace but the holy way of the cross 
and of daily mortification. 

"Go where thou wilt, seek what thou wilt, and 
thou shalt not find a higher way above, nor a safer 
way below than the way of the holy cross. 

"Dispose and order all things according to thy 
will and as seems best to thee, and thou wilt still 
find something to suffer, either willingly or unwill- 
ingly, and so thou shalt still find the cross. For 
either thou shalt feel pain in thy body or sustain in 
thy soul tribulation of spirit. Sometimes thou shalt 
feel abandoned bv God, at other times thou shalt 
be afflicted by thy neighbor, and what is more, 
thou shalt often be a trouble to thvself. Nor 



428 Mortification of the Senses. 

canst thou be released or relieved by any remedy 
or comfort, but needs must bear it as long as 
God wills. 

''For God would have thee learn to suffer tribu- 
lation without comfort, and wholly submit thyself 
to Him, and to become more humble by tribulation. 

''No man hath so lively a feeling of the Passion of 
Christ as he who hath happened to suffer such like 
things. 

"The cross, therefore, is always ready and every- 
where waits for thee. 

"Thou canst not escape it, whithersoever thou 
runnest; for whithersoever thou goest thou carriest 
thyself with thee and shalt always find thyself. 

"Turn thyself upwards, or turn thyself down- 
wards ; turn thyself without, or turn thyself within 
thee, and everywhere thou shalt find the cross. 

"And everywhere thou must of necessity have pa- 
tience; if thou desirest inward peace and wouldst 
merit an eternal crown. 

"If thou carry the cross willingly, it will carry 
thee and bring thee to thy desired end — to that place 
where there will be an end of suffering, though here 
there will be no end. If thou carry it unwillingly, 
thou makest it a burden to thee, and loadest thyself 
the more, and nevertheless thou must bear it. If 
thou fling away one cross, without doubt thou shalt 
find another and perhaps a heavier. 

"Dost thou think to escape that which no mortal 
ever could avoid? What saint was there ever in 
the world without his cross and affliction? Our 
Lord Jesus Christ Himself was not for one hour of 
His life without the anguish of His Passion. 'It 
behooved,' said He, 'that Christ should suffer, and 
rise from the dead, and so enter into His glory.' 

"And how dost thou seek another way than this 



MortHication of the Senses. 429 

royal way, which is the way of the holy cross? 
The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyr- 
dom, and dost thou seek rest and joy? 

'Thou errest, thou errest, if thou seekest any 
other thing than to suffer tribulations ; for this whole 
mortal life is full of miseries and beset on all sides 
with crosses. 

''And the higher a person is advanced in spirit,, 
the heavier crosses shall he often meet with, be- 
cause the pain of ^his banishment increases in 
proportion to his love. 

"Yet this man, thus many ways afflicted, is not 
without some allay of comfort, because he is sensible 
of the great profit which he reaps by bearing the 
cross. 

"For while he willingly resigns himself to it, all 
the burden of tribulation is converted into an as- 
sured hope of comfort from God. 

"And the more the flesh is brought down by af- 
fliction, the more the spirit is strengthened by in- 
ward grace. And sometimes he gains such strength 
through affection to tribulation and adversity, by his 
love of conformity to the cross of Christ, as not to be 
willing to be without suffering and affliction ; be- 
cause such a one believes himself to be so much the 
more acceptable to God the more grievous and 
greater things he shall have endured for His sake. 
This is not man's power but the grace of Christ, 
which can and does effect such great things in frail 
flesh, that what it naturally abhors and evades it 
now, through fervor of spirit, embraces and loves. 

"To bear the cro«s, to love the cross, to chastise 
the body, and bring it under subjection; to fly 
honors, to be wilHng to suffer reproaches, to despise 
one's self and wish to be despised ; to bear all adver- 
sities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this 



430 Mortification of the Senses. 

world, are not according to man's natural inclina- 
tion. 

"If thou look upon thyself, thou canst do noth- 
ing of this of thyself. 

''But if thou confide in the Lord, strength will be 
given thee from heaven and the world and the flesh 
shall be made subject to thee. 

''Neither shalt thou fear thine enemy, the devil, 
if thou be armed with faith and signed with the cross 
of Christ. 

"Set thyself then like a good and faithful servant 
of Christ, to bear manfully the cross of thy Lord, 
crucified for the love of thee. 

"Prepare thyself to suffer many adversities and 
divers evils in this miserable Hfe ; for so it will be 
with thee wherever thou art, and so indeed wilt thou 
find it wheresoever thou mayst hide thyself. 

"It must be so, and there is no remedy against the 
tribulation of evil and sorrow but to bear them 
patiently. 

"Drink of the chalice of thy Lord lovingly if thou 
desire to be His friend and to have part with Him 
(Matt. XX. 22), 

"Leave consolations to God, to do with them as 
best pleaseth Him. 

"But prepare thou thyself to bear tribulations, and 
account them the greatest consolations ; for the suf- 
ferings of this life bear no proportion to the glory 
to come (Rom. viii. 18), although thou alone 
couldst suffer them all. 

"Know for certain that thou must lead a dying 
life, and the more a man dies •to himself the more 
he begins to Hve to God. 

"No man is fit to comprehend heavenly things 
who has not resigned himself to suffer adversities 
for Christ. 



Mortification of the Senses. 431 

"Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more 
wholesome for thee in this world than to suffer will- 
ingly for Christ. 

''And if thou wert to choose, thou oughtst to wish 
rather to suffer adversities for Christ than to be de- 
lighted with many comforts, because thou wouldst 
thus be more like unto Christ and more conform- 
able to all the saints. 

''For our merit and the advancement of our state 
consist, not in having many sweetnesses and conso- 
lations, but rather in bearing great afflictions and 
tribulations. 

"Ifj indeed, there had been anything better and 
more beneficial to man's salvation than suffering, 
Christ certainly would have showed it by word and 
example. 

''For He manfully exhorts both His disciples that 
followed Him and all that desire to follow Him to 
bear the cross, saying : 'If any man will come after 
Ale, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily 
and follow Me' (Luke ix. 23). 

"So that when we have read and searched all let 
this be the final conclusion, that 'through many 
tribulations we must enter mto the kingdom of God' 
(Acts xiv. 21)." 



CHAPTER XL. 

Silence, 

*T^OTHiNG makes a deeper impression upon out- 
^6 siders visiting a monastery or a religious 
house than the silence that prevails within its sacred 
precincts. The silence of its halls and corridors, 
even of its courtyards and gardens, fills them with 
awe and edification. Seculars coming to a convent 
are so impressed with this silence that they feel as if 
they were breathing the atmosphere of another 
world, as if they were inhaling a fragrance wafted 
from heaven. A high value has been placed on the 
conscientious observance of silence in accordance 
with the holy Rule by the saints and founders of 
Religious Orders. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis de Sales, and 
other Saints have remarked that if silence is ob- 
served in a convent you may rest assured that relig- 
ious discipline is flourishing there. Furthermore, 
they state that if the reform of a religious com- 
munity is desired, one of the most important things 
to be insisted on is the strict observance of silence. 
Silence is prescribed in religious houses because with- 
out it the proper discipline can not be maintained, 
and because it is necessary as a preparation for 
prayer and meditation. Silence preserves peace. 
Silence fosters recollection and devotion and dis- 
poses the soul to a more intimate union with God. 
Conscientious observance of silence makes a Relig- 
ious eloquent in conversation with God. In his ex- 
cellent work, The Spirit of Sacrifice, Father Giraud 
makes the following reflections and practical sug- 
gestions on regular silence : 



Silence. 433 

Regular silence, as its name indicates, is that 
which is enjoined by the Rule. Different names are 
given to it. There is the strict or great silence and 
habitual silence ; silence in word and silence in move- 
ments. In the same way there are some special places 
where, in their different degrees, silence must be 
kept more rigorously than in others ; for instance, 
the church, the choir, the refectory. We shall now 
proceed to speak of exterior silence, viewed under 
these different aspects. 

I. The great silence. This is the silence enjoined 
on the Religious during the closing hours of the 
day, the whole of the night, and the next morning 
until after the meditation or after holy Mass, if 
Mass follows immediately upon the meditation. It 
is called the great silence because it must not be 
broken without a good reason, and the strict silence 
because it must only be infringed for a serious mat- 
ter. It is also called sacred because it is closely al- 
lied to mental prayer, St. Jerome expresses this 
in the wording of his Rule : *'The holy hermits 
who dwell in the desert keep the sacred silences 
(sancta silentia) most scrupulously on account 
of their being the source and parent of holy 
contemplation.'' 

There is something solemn in the strokes of the 
bell which gives the signal in religious houses for 
the commencement of the great silence. From the 
moment it is heard not a sound breaks the stillness 
of the monastery; its inmates move about with a 
grave, composed demeanor, the doors are opened 
and shut carefully and noiselessly. It is as if the 
spirit of God, penetrating and taking possession of 
the heart of each one, verified in a striking, nay, a 
visible manner the words of Elias on Mount Carmel : 
"The Lord is not in the earthquake." ''The Lord 



434 Silence. 

will bless His people with peace'' (3 Kings xix. 11 ; 
Ps. xxviii. 11). 

These tranquil evening hours and still watches of 
the night are seasons of special benediction. The 
rest which the body takes is emblematic of the soul's 
repose, when she detaches herself more fully from 
created things and gives herself more completely to 
God, saying with the Psalmist : 'Tn peace in the self- 
same I will sleep, and I will rest" in my God (Ps. iv. 
9). The night prayers or the Psalms recited in 
Compline are specially conducive to recollection ; the 
points of meditation which are given to the com- 
munity or read by each one individually, according 
to the custom of the house, furnish the soul with 
holy thoughts, and the Religious retires to rest, his 
mind still dwelling on the salutary truths he has just 
heard. The morning's meditation may be said to be 
commenced overnight. He says with the spouse in 
the Canticles : 'T sleep and my heart watcheth." On 
awakening in the morning his first thought is of the 
presence of God. The silence observed by the whole 
community acts as a safeguard against temptation 
to voluntary distractions, and when all are as- 
sembled in the choir for the first common prayer of 
the day, one might imagine that heaven had come 
down to earth to ofifer to the God of infinite majesty 
the praise and thanksgiving which are His due. 

Let us always entertain the greatest respect for 
the silence which is truly sacred, the time for which 
is filled up with occupations of a heavenly nature. 
Some fervent Religious have been known to perform 
acts of heroic patience to avoid breaking that silence. 
Every monastery records some instance of this kind. 
It is said that a Visitation nun who fractured her 
arm just after the great silence commenced pre- 
ferred to sufifer excruciating pain rather than call 



Silence. 435 

one of the Sisters to her assistance. This is some- 
what overstrained ; we must admire and not imitate 
as St. Francis de Sales would have said. In fact no 
one could fail to admire fortitude and endurance of 
so high a degree, nor can one help admiring Mere 
Emilie, who on hearing one of her daughters groan- 
ing at night in acute pain went to her and sat beside 
her several hours, endeavoring to soothe her and 
divert her from her suffering by reciting edifying 
and interesting anecdotes. Toward a novice who 
wilfully violated the Rule Mere Emilie acted very 
differently. A young novice, only sixteen years old, 
forgot herself so far as to say something calculated 
to make the others laugh, while feigning sleep. She 
was obliged to confess her fault in the refectory. 
''Sister," the Mother Superior said to her, '"you are 
partly to be excused on account of your youth and 
your ignorance. Had you fully realized what you 
were doing, you would have deserved a severe pun- 
ishment. I hope this will be the last as it is the 
first time so thoughtless an act occurs in our monas- 
tery. In reparation, you will eat your dinner on 
your knees for a fortnight, and meanwhile pray God 
to give you a sense of your duties, to make you love 
and respect silence, and respect your fellow-Re- 
ligious, too.'' No virtue is at variance with the 
others ; charity and silence can go hand in hand. 

2. Habitual silence. This consists in not speak- 
ing without necessity except at recreation. The 
Rule which enjoins this practice also indirectly pro- 
hibits any noise calculated to disturb the quiet of 
the monastery. 

If this silence is scrupulously kept, the monastery 
is like a holy temple where the presence of God is 
felt. The venerable foundress whose words and ex- 
ample we delight in quoting speaks thus of her first 



436 Silence. 

companions in the infancy of her Congregation: ''It 
was really touching to see how scrupulously they 
kept the Rule of silence ; even in sickness they 
avoided breaking it, asking as far as possible by 
signs for whatever they might want. Such pro- 
found stillness reigned throughout the whole house 
that when M. TAbbe Marty, our spiritual Father, 
crossed the threshold, he stopped short, and struck 
with admiration, said under his breath : 'This is an 
earthly paradise ! All lips are silent, all e3^es cast 
down/ " 

There are, however, circumstances when it is pos- 
sible, even necessary to speak; when duty, charity, 
courtesy, or some pressing want obliges us to break 
silence. On such occasions the following rules 
should be followed : 

I. Never speak without permission, if it is possi- 
ble to ask it. 

. 2. If we have not time, or are otherwise unable to 
go and ask for this permission, let us not take it for 
granted without good and solid reasons. 
- 3. Let us do our utmost to postpone until recrea- 
tion-time w^hat at first seemed necessary to say at 
once. Some persons, not excepting Religious, are so 
unable to restrain their tongue that they mistake for 
motives of necessity, good breeding, or charity, what 
is in reality want of mortification and levity. 

4. It must not be forgotten that the Rule of 
silence is no less obligatory in our intercourse with 
our Superior than with the other members of the 
Community ; that is to say, in either case one must 
have a proper reason for breaking the silence. 

5. When such a reason exists, let us be brief. 
More urbanity of manner and fewer words would 
be a double advantage; charity and silence would 
both gain thereby. Garrulity impoverishes the soul. 



Silence. 437 

If we knew how pernicious this is, we should try to 
be laconic in our speech and only say what was 
necessary. 

6. Not only let us be sparing in words, but speak 
in a low tone. If it is true that a hallowed silence 
ought to prevail in the monastery the habit some 
people have of raising their voices seems almost a 
desecration of the religious tranquillity which is so 
pleasing to God. 

7. In any case let us be very careful not to cause 
disedification to any one. St. Paul says : "All things 
are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient; 
all things are lawful for me, but all things do not 
edify'' (i Cor. vi. 12; x. 23). 

8. We are sometimes advised to make use of 
signs instead of words if a sign will answer our pur- 
pose. This advice is good, as it often serves to pre- 
vent an infraction of the Rule. At La Trappe, as is 
well known, the monks employ no other method of 
communication. But it is obvious that the sign 
must express our meaning if it is to be of any use. 
Here we shall do well to recall St. Chantal's wise 
remark : ''Never make use of signs to the Sisters in 
the time of silence which are not intelligible. It is 
much better to say a few words, if necessity requires, 
than to make a number of signs which fail to con- 
vey your meaning and perhaps only confuse the Sis- 
ters and cause them great distractions.'' 

Such are the rules which it will be found useful 
to follow for the perfect observance of exterior si- 
lence. But besides the silence in word, there is the 
silence in our movements. The rules that provide 
for this are the same as the rules of religious 
modesty ; yet we think it wise to remind the reader 
of them, lest anything essential to the practice of 
regular silence should be omitted. 



438 Silence. 

I. In your general deportment avoid a hurried 
manner, which m.ay have a disturbing efifect on those 
around you. I will give a few details on this point 
which those who are really in earnest will not con- 
sider too minute. There is a way of walking, a way 
even of using one's handkerchief which does not 
correspond with the tranquillity of the monastery. 
There are certain expressions of the countenance 
and restless movements of the body which are any- 
thing but signs of recollection of heart, and are a 
fertile source of distractions to those who witness 
them. Can you imagine Our Lord or His blessed 
Mother behaving thus? 

2. Open and shut doors and windows with simple, 
calm, attentive care, to avoid making a noise. Do 
not push or pull tables and chairs, or any piece of 
furniture you want to move, but lift them, or get 
somebody to help you place them elsewhere. By 
this holy poverty will be the gainer as well as 
silence. 

3. If a doctor, a man of business, or workmen 
have to be admitted into the house, you will find 
there is a simple, unaffected way of behaving, decor- 
ous and courteous withal, which, without actually 
asking them to be quiet, will make outsiders feel 
that they must be careful not to disturb the tran- 
quillity of the monastery m.ore than need be. How 
greatly it is to be desired that every Religious 
should be imbued with profound respect for the 
silence of the Rule ! 

Silence ought to be more strictly observed in some 
places than in others : the church, the chapter-room, 
the dormitory, the refectory. We will say a few 
words on this point. 

I. The church, the choir, and, in a lesser degree, 
the sacristy. Is it necessary to explain why silence 



Silence, 439 

is to be especially kept in those places? Certainly 
not. Cassian praises the monks of Egypt for their 
strict observance of this rule ; for in all this numer- 
ous assembly of men, he says, one would think there 
was but one present, the one who, standing in the 
middle of the choir, sings the psalm. No one 
•coughs, no one heaves a sigh ; and a severe punish- 
ment is inflicted on any one who breaks the silence. 

2. The dormitory. We have already said enough 
on the reason why silence is enjoined in the dormi- 
tory, w^hen speaking of the great or strict silence. 

3. The chapter-room. This has always been held 
in respect by religious communities, for it is there 
that they receive counsels, encouragements, salutary 
reproofs which keep them up to the standard of 
their vocation ; there by self-accusation and the 
penances given them they expiate their offenses, un- 
happily only too numerous, against the Rule. 

4. The refectory. The refectory of a religious 
house might almost be regarded as a temple, since 
in it the Religious offers to God a great number of 
sacrifices by the mortifications he practices, and the 
penances, self-imposed or otherwise, which it is cus- 
tomary in most monasteries to perform there. • The 
monks of old were strict observers of silence in the 
refectory. An ancient writer thus describes the 
manner in which the Egyptian cenobites held their 
repasts : "The silence that reigns in the refectory is 
so profound that among all the monks present — 
and they are a goodly company — not one is found 
who ventures to speak a word to his neighbor, or in- 
deed to make any noise whatsoever. When a dish is 
to be brought in or removed, the monk who presides 
at the table intimates this by a gentle rap ; his voice 
is rarely heard." The rule of silence at table is re- 
spected in all fervent communities, unless it is set 



440 Silence, 

aside for an adequate reason or by some provision 
of the Rule itself. 

The manuals of direction usually enjoin the care- 
ful observance of silence in the corridors and on the 
stairs, for the sake of the general edification. 

Finally, in regard to keeping silence in the in- 
firmary, we will quote the following wise remarks 
which breathe the spirit of faith : ''Permission to go 
to the infirmary must be asked for the sake of visit- 
ing the sick out of kindness, and saying a few words 
to them about holy things. The infirmary is in a 
certain sense sacred; Our Lord often hallows it by 
His presence. It might justly be called the ante- 
chamber of heaven, for so many of our Sisters have 
departed thence to enter upon eternity; thence they 
have winged their flight, as we confidently hope, to 
the realms of everlasting bliss. Could we allow idle 
or frivolous conversation in such a place? No, let 
all we say in the infirmary be on some pious theme. 
Unless we are on our guard, it may easily become 
a snare to us, the source of irregularity and sins of 
the tongue. Alas ! we know what St. James says : 
Tf any man offend not in word, the same is a 
perfect man' (iii. 2)/' 



CHAPTER XLI. 

JFraternal Gbarttg. 

^i tSe Wecessitg oC ij^utual ILobe antr Union. 

yJl|o love God without loving one's neighbor is an 
^^ impossibility. The same commandment en- 
joins both the one and the other. ''And this com- 
mandment we have from God, that he, who loveth 
God, love also his brother'' ( i John iv. 21 ) . But why 
must we love our neighbor? Because our neighbor 
is loved by God. Therefore did the holy Apostle 
declare : "If any man say I love God, and hateth his 
brother, he is a liar.'' Jesus Christ says that He 
looks upon the love we bear to the least of His 
brethren as given to Himself. Now, these brethren 
of Our Lord are our fellow-men, our neighbors. 
''Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of 
these My least brethren, you did it to Me" (Matt. 
XXV. 40). 

But this gracious daughter of God, holy love,, be- 
ing disowned by worldlings, seeks a refuge in the 
cloister. How sad were it even unable to find an 
asylum there ! As hatred alone reigns in hell, so 
love alone reigns in heaven. There the saints all 
love one another; each rejoices over the happiness 
of the others as over his own. • And the convent m 
which love holds sovereign sway — what a beautiful 
heaven! It is the object of the divine complacency. 
"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for breth- 
ren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. cxxxii. i.) 
Almighty God looks down with pleasure on those 
houses in which He sees the Religious living to- 



442 Fraternal Charity. 

gether in peace and harmony, having but one end in 
view, namely, to serve God, and all lovingly helping 
one another on to eternal salvation. How can we 
hope to be united in Our Father's house after this 
exile, if we now live in disunion? Fraternal 
charity was the principal fruit of the Redemption 
foretold by the prophet Isaias. ''The wolf shall 
dwell with the lamb : and the leopard shall lie 
down with the kid. . . . They shall not hurt, nor 
shall they kill" (Is. xi. 6). The Prophet means by 
those words that the followers of Christ, no matter 
how varied their character, inclinations, and na- 
tionality, will live together in peace, since every one 
will support his neighbor in charity. What does the 
word community signify, if not that the same de- 
sires and inclinations animate its members ? Love is 
the common bond of union. Love makes them bear 
with one another, yield to one another; and love is 
strong as death, as the Holy Scriptures tell us. 

Religious call one another by the endearing title 
of brother or sister. Though not related by the ties 
of blood, they are truly brothers or sisters by the in- 
timate love that ought to bind them together. All 
founders and foundresses of Religious Orders have 
on their death-bed so earnestly enjoined fraternal 
charity on their sons and daughters, because they 
knew that where union does not reign God is not 
found. 

St. Augustine says : ''When you see that the ma- 
terials of which a house is built, the stone and mor- 
tar, etc., are holding together fast, you enter that 
house without fear of its falling. But if the walls 
are crumbling, you do not venture to set foot in it.'' 
The saint wishes to imply by these words that 
blessed is the religious house in which all are united 
in holy love, but unhappiness dwells in that which is 



Fraternal Charity. 443 

the home of discord and disunion. Such a convent 
may be called a hell on earth. It is no longer a house 
of God, for Satan is its master; no longer a house 
of salvation, but a home of perdition. What advan- 
tage is it for a convent to be rich and powerful, for 
it to possess a magnificent church, to be surrounded 
by gardens and orchards, if love and union have fled 
from its precincts? Such a convent is surely not a 
haven of rest. If discord has crept into your con- 
vent, bemoan it before God with tears, and beg Him 
to stretch forth His almighty hand for the removal 
of the evil ! That almighty hand is required to put 
down factions and remove dissensions that have 
once sprung up in a religious community. Let us 
do all in our power to remedy the evil ; let us spare 
ourselves no trouble. But if it is altogether beyond 
our control, let us, at least, keep our own soul in 
peace. Let us refrain from taking part in so great 
an evil to the general welfare, yes, let us turn away 
from it as we would from an atmosphere of pesti- 
lence. 

Those Religious who burn with zeal for the 
maintenance of the holy Rule and religious disci- 
pline are surely not to blame. Such zeal for 
the good of the community marks the followers of 
Jesus Christ the adherents of His party. The 
spirit of Christ breeds zeal for religious discipline, 
zeal for the glory of the house of God. If some 
violation of Rule has slipped in, let us not hesi- 
tate to unite with the zealous lovers of holy disci- 
pline to root it out. Even should others forsake us, 
even should we stand alone, we must defend the 
cause of God. The Lord will certainly reward what 
is done to keep up strict observance of Rule. To 
be careless and indifferent in this regard is not a 
mark of virtue. It is not humility, but cowardice; 



444 Fraternal Charity. 

it is a want of virtue and the love of God. When 
we speak of factions, we refer to those that are 
formed from interested motives, such as, one's own 
advancement in position, particular friendships, the 
humbling of some, especially those in authority, 
whom we do not care for, or even the avenging of 
punishment formerly received, and similar so-called 
injuries. Factions of this nature must be shunned 
as the bane, not only of the religious, but also of 
the Christian life. Self-interest ought never to 
domineer in the heart of a Religious, for charity and 
the general good demands its total sacrifice. When 
St. Gregory of Nazianzen saw the Bishops wrang- 
ling on his account, some being in favor of his 
becoming their Patriarch, others not, he thus 
addressed them : ''My dear brothers, I desire that 
you live in peace with one another. If otherwise 
peace and concord can not be established among 
you, I will resign my bishopric." The saint 
actually carried out his determination. He left his 
see of Constantinople, and withdrew to a hermitage, 
where he closed his days in peace. 

To symbolize the order and union that should 
reign in a convent, the ancient Fathers made use of 
a lyre with many strings. If all are tuned in unison, 
if all are in accord, they form sweet melody, they 
give forth harmonious sounds. But let one of the 
strings that span the lyre be tuned too high or too 
low, harmony becomes discord, melody ceases. So 
it is in a religious community. One single member 
not in union, not in harmony with the Superior, is 
sufficient to destroy the unanimity, the peace, of the 
whole body. Reflecting on this symbol of the lyre, 
some spiritual writers have said : ''Concord is derived 
from chorda, the string of a musical instrument.'^ 
But more correctly, and more to our purpose, may 



Fraternal Charity, 445 

we say that it comes from cor, the heart ; for in con- 
cord (concordia) all have but one heart, as we read 
in the Acts of the Apostles : /'And the multitude of 
believers had but one heart and one souF' (Acts 
iv. 32). 

Let us be very careful to preserve mutual love and 
union, for on them depends the safety of the Or- 
der. St. Bernard says : ''As into a vessel at sea the 
water enters either because the boards are loose or 
but thinly pitched, so does a Religious Order go to 
destruction if its members are not firmly bound to- 
gether by the cords of holy charity.'' On the night 
before His Passion, our dear Redeemer, in the 
prayer that He made to His Eternal Father, peti- 
tioned for us this union as necessary for our 
eternal welfare. ''Holy Father, keep them in 
Thy name whom Thou hast given Me : that they 
may be one as we also are'' (John xvii. 11). 

One of the means by which a Religious may 
maintain peace and charity with all the members of 
her community is that which the Apostle most 
earnestly enjoined on his disciples in these few 
words : "Put ye on, therefore, as the elect of God, 
holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, 
humility, modesty, patience" (Col. iii. 12). * He 
says : "Put ye on," that is, clothe yourselves with 
charity; for as a Religious always wears the habit 
of her Order, as it covers her entirely, so must she 
in all her actions show forth holy charity, must, as 
it were, be entirely clothed with it. The Apostle 
further enjoins : "Put ye on the bowels of mercy." 
The Religious must not only be clothed with charity, 
but she must be animated by a real and heartfelt 
compassion for her neighbor. She must bear 
toward every member of her community a love most 
tender, as if specially attracted to that one. Behold 



446 Fraternal Charity. 

the passionate lover! How does he think and 
speak of the beloved one? Does he not rejoice 
in the welfare, is he not troubled at the misfortune, 
of the one so dear to his heart ? Does he not make 
both her joys and her sorrows his very own? If the 
object of his affection should commit some little in- 
discretion, with what warmth does he not defend, or 
at least excuse, it ! If, on the contrary, his beloved 
achieves some great work, performs some noble 
deed, how loud the praise with which he exalts her 
to the skies ! The passion of natural love effects all 
that. Now, what passion does for others must, 
among Religious, be the result of holy fraternal 
charity. 

Let us cultivate mutual charity in thought, as 
well as in word and deed. As regards thought, let 
us reject every suspicion, every mistrust, every 
rash judgment. We can not look into the heart. 
Appearances frequently deceive us. The holy Gos- 
pel warns us : "J^^ge not, and you shall not be 
judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be con- 
demned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven" 
(Luke vi. 37). God alone knows the secret and 
hidden things of the heart. He commands us, 
therefore, not to presume to judge such things. 
St. Paul admonishes us in these words : ''Who art 
thou that judgest another man's servant? To his 
own lord he standeth or falleth" (Rom. xiv. 4). 

''Do you not judge within yourselves and are be- 
come judges of unjust thoughts?" asks the Apostle 
James (ii. 4), and the Wise Man says of those rash 
judges: "Like a soothsayer and diviner, he thinketh 
that which he knoweth not" (Prov. xxiii. 7). 

"Charity thinketh no evil" (i Cor. xiii. 5), says 
the Apostle. St. Jane de Chantal used to say : "We 
must look for the good, not for the evil, in our 



Fraternal Charity. 447 

neighbor." St. Augustine remarks : ''Should you 
be deceived and disappointed in your neighbor, 
should you take something for good that in reality 
is bad, be not troubled about such errors, for 
charity is not vexed when she finds herself de- 
ceived ; she rejoices in having harbored kind 
thoughts even of the wicked." We should be very 
reserved, also, in searching into the actions and 
faults of others. Above all, let us never imitate 
those who want to know all that is said about them. 
This gives rise to suspicion, which soon turns into 
bitterness, and ends in dislike for others. Things 
repeated are generally distorted and falsely related. 
Should we hear, perchance, that some one has 
spoken of our faults, let us give it no thought, much 
less ask who has said it. Let us act conscientiously 
and always conduct ourselves in such manner that 
only good can be said of us, and then let the censori- 
ous talk as they will. If we hear that they unjustly 
attribute some fault to us, we can accept the remark 
with silence, or we may simply say: "God will 
judge me on that point!" 

Beware of nursing any spiteful joy at the 
mishaps of your neighbor ; suppress every unkind 
feeling that arises ; be noble and generous in 
thought as well as in deed. We must also rejoice 
at the prosperity of our neighbor, allowing no feel- 
ing of envy to lurk in our heart, even if his good 
fortune stands in the way of our own. 

What is said by the author of General Principles 
of the Religious Life on the conduct of monks 
toward the fellow-members of their Order is equally 
applicable to the members of a religious sisterhood : 

I. The lives of Religious in a community should 
resemble the lives of the saints in heaven. These all 
view and honor each other in God. Look upon all 



44^ Fraternal Charity. 

with whom you are living as you would upon the 
saints if they came down to you from heaven. You 
will thus find nothing in your neighbor to criticise ; 
on the contrary, everything will seem good, despite 
unfavorable appearances. As often as you feel 
yourself disturbed by a grave suspicion, take care 
not to consent to it, but turn your eye upon yourself, 
humble yourself before God, in the remembrance of 
your own faults, and cry out from the depth of your 
soul : O God ! be merciful to my proud, sinful soul, 
that has every reason to cast herself at the feet of 
those whose judge she would presume to be. 

2. Speak of your fellow-Religious respectfully, 
and let it never occur to you to indulge in private 
gossip with any one soever, or to listen to evil re- 
ports about others. In general, be scrupulously 
careful not to spread rumors about the one or the 
other, which might rupture the peace of the com- 
munity, and diminish the cordial affection among 
your brethren. A defamer makes a breach in the 
ramparts of the most God-fearing community; a 
slanderer undermines the whole edifice ; while he 
that spreads discord pulls it down to the very 
foundation. 

Be warned not to contradict any one except when 
evil is approved ; nor persist in defending at the ex- 
pense of charity an affair of yours about which there 
happens to be question; rather submit your judg- 
ment to that of others. If it is necessary to main- 
tain your opinion, advance your reasons with mod- 
eration, not that your superiority may be acknowl- 
edged, but simply that the truth may prevail. A 
quarrelsome person is like an ill-natured cur, that 
flies at everybody. He is universally shunned for 
his pains. 

3. If you notice a failing in 3^our fellow-Religious 



Fraternal Charity. 449 

which the Superior alone can remedy, you are bound 
to notify him of it, else you become chargeable with 
the fault and its consequences. But take care not to 
inform against him with deceitful intention, or from 
jealousy, revenge, or other passion. Make sure of 
all you want to say, and add nothing untrue, other- 
wise you become guilty of the odious sin of calumny 
— truly an abomination. A good Religious who, 
with a view to the amendment of his fellow- 
Religious, informs the Superior of their failings 
diminishes rather than magnifies a fault, and ren- 
ders valuable service to each of the members and to 
the community as a whole. For any one to pursue 
a different course would be to disturb religious har- 
mony, and to expose his own soul to the danger of 
being lost. 

4. Try to be as keenly alive to the misfortune and 
success of your fellow-Religious as to your own ; be 
glad at what gladdens them, grieve at what gives 
them pain, and do your best to console and cheer 
them. As the monastic family is a body whose head 
is Jesus Christ and whose members are the Re- 
ligious, it is proper that the brethren share joy and 
sorrow in common, and give expression to mutual 
sympathy. When one member of the body suffers, 
all the other members suffer, unless they are them- 
selves diseased or dead. 

Shun with care all natural aversions and special 
friendships. They are tw^o equally dangerous out- 
growths of corrupt nature ; two very catching moral 
diseases, all the more dangerous for God-fearing 
communities that they force an entrance into the 
breast by the most seductive of sensual charms, 
against which ordinary care is not a sufficient safe- 
guard. It is refreshing to know that a Religious 
had the courage to rend the strong ties of flesh and 



450 Fraternal Charity, 

blood which held him bound to the nearest and dear- 
est of kin in order to embrace a life of mortification 
and self-denial for Christ's sake; but how sad the 
plight if afterward that Religious allows himself to 
be enslaved with coward soul by the wretched tyr- 
anny of particular friendship ! There is inspiration 
in the thought that his ardent soul was not satisfied 
with merely the perfection of ordinary Christians, 
which prescribes the love of enemies, but that with 
holy impatience he generously embraced a life which 
calls for the highest perfection attainable. But oh ! 
the shame to see that once heroic soul turn traitor 
to his grand resolve — harboring aversion for a fel- 
low-Religious, and loathing the very sight of him ! 
''The illustrious of Israel are slain upon thy moun- 
tains. How are the, valiant fallen!'' (2 Kings i. 19). 
5. Do not give way to envy if a fellow-Religious 
enjoys greater confidence than you and is preferred ; 
and give no place to jealousy if he receives greater 
marks of respect and affection. Rather suppress the 
first emotion of self-love at once ; thank God from 
your heart for the graces He bestows on others, and 
beg Him to preserve and increase these graces in 
them, if it redounds to His glory and their welfare. 
What a deep and tender mystery this, to acquire 
merits so rare with little risk and labor ! Brotherly 
love is that mysterious philosopher's stone which 
changes the veriest dross into purest gold; while 
envy is that deadly bane which changed the beauti- 
ful natures of Lucifer and his lightsome host into 
foulest and most loathsome demons. 

6. Of the many opportunities that a Religious finds 
to practice heroic virtues and lay up great merits for 
heaven, one of the commonest is to accommodate 
himself to the various characters he has to associate 
with in a large community, and to bear with patience 



Fraternal Charity, 451 

their manifold infirmities — to rejoice with the gay, 
to weep with the sad, as far as this is possible with- 
out offending God. Cordial sympathy, it is true, 
comes harder to a Religious than fasting, the disci- 
pline, and similar painful exercises, because of the 
steady violence he has to do himself in thus adapt- 
ing himself to the characters of others. But for this 
very reason the practice is all the more meritorious 
and pleasing to the divine majesty. God freely com- 
municates Himself to the soul who for love of Him 
tries to become all things to all men. 

7. It would be a serious defect in a religious 
house, and a sure sign of its approaching ruin, if 
the younger mem.bers made light of the older and 
did not heed their wholesome admonitions. But in 
the same way the older members would act very 
wrong if they corrected their younger brethren as 
if they were children, and treated them as servants. 
The younger brethren owe their elders sincere and 
profound respect, but the older members owe the 
younger brethren tender and respectful affection in 
return. Age deserves to be respected on account of 
the virtues it has acquired by long and painstaking 
labor, and youth deserves an equal measure of af- 
fectionate regard because of its exertion to become 
perfect. 

8. Be on your guard against certain indelicate and 
childish familiarities, which pass with the coarse 
and uncultured, but are ill-suited to the refined spir- 
itual instinct and sensitized conscience of well-disci- 
plined religious souls. Of such a nature are address 
by given name alone, or by nicknames and pet 
names, laying hold of others in a rude way, offen- 
sive to religious modesty, indulging in wanton or 
endearing speech. Such familiarities never last 
long. Besides, they have their seat in fickleness of 



452 Fraternal Charity. 

character or an untempered cast of soul. When once 
they have taken root they are the source of untold 
evils. It is an old saying and true, that familiarity 
breeds contempt, contempt breeds discord, and dis- 
cord breeds destruction. 

Do not try to discover Religious who will flatter 
you or who would be likely to humor your natural, 
undisciplined ways. Make it a point rather to dis- 
cover those who will correct you in charity, and will 
not bear to see the least imperfections in you with- 
out offering you a remedy. Look upon flatterers as 
3^our secret enemies, who will some day be the first 
to expose and condemn you, as even now they al- 
ready condemn you in their heart. Regard those 
who correct you as your friends, who love to work 
at your sanctification. The difference between 
friendship and flattery is this : friendship offers its 
services to benefit others, while flattery offers its ser- 
vices to benefit self. 

9. A Religious worthy of the name, like a harm- 
less dove, is a stranger to spite, and never resents an 
injury, much less does he entertain ill-will toward 
his tormentors. To leave no doubt in their mind of 
his kindly feelings toward them, he seems rather to 
bear many a wrong from them cheerfully. Such is 
his desire to suffer and to imitate the example of his 
divine Master. Do you wish to become like this 
model Religious? — and why should you not, since 
with God's grace, which will not be denied you, you 
certainly can become like him. Choke off, then, at 
once, all feelings of dislike in the very start, and be 
guided in this by lofty motives. When unavoidable 
frictions do occur, humble yourself and be the first 
to ask pardon, though you are least in fault. Pray 
specially for those who by their ill-will give you the 
occasion for numerous merits, and make it a special 



Fraternal Charity, 453 

point often to oblige them and anticipate their 
wishes. To return good for evil is pecuHar only to 
Jesus and His faithful disciples. 

Religious orders flourish and maintain themselves 
as long as mutual regard and affection are preserved 
intact. It has always been a matter of common be- 
lief that God is served best where men love one an- 
other best. 

The following reflections from Father Lasausse's 
charming little volume, A Happy Year, will serve 
to emphasize what has been said on fraternal 
charity. 

''Charity to our neighbor," says St. Vincent de 
Paul, ''is a sign of predestination, because it shows 
we are true disciples of Jesus Christ. This divine 
virtue it was which caused Jesus Christ to lead a 
life of poverty and to die naked on a cross. For 
this reason, whenever we find an occasion to do 
something for charity, we should thank God."' And 
St. Teresa says : "Jesus Christ so loved our neigh- 
bor as to give His life for him. Our Saviour re- 
joices when we sacrifice ourselves to do him good. 
Everything we do for our neighbor to please God, 
to show our love for Him, is most agreeable to Him. 
Oh, if we understood well of what importance is the 
virtue of charity to our neighbor, with what zeal 
would we not perform acts of this virtue!" 

St. Magdalene of Pazzi was accustomed to say 
that she considered as lost the day in which she did 
not exercise some charity for her neighbor. St. Vin- 
cent de Paul lived but for this. He never lost an op- 
portunity for practicing this virtue. 

Tertullian relates of the first Christians that they 
loved one another so perfectly that the pagans were 
in admiration, and said : "Consider how the Chris- 
tians love one another, how they respect one an- 



454 Fraternal Charity. 

Other, how attentive to do a service for each other 
even to die one for the other/' 

St. John the Evangeh'st, according to St. Jerome, 
in his old age, being no longer able to walk, was 
carried in the arms of the disciples to the assemblies 
of the Christians, and from the weakness of his 
voice he could not make long discourses. He con- 
tented himself with saying : "My little children, love 
one another." Some wearied, perhaps, at hearing 
the same words, murmured, saying: ''Why do you 
always give us this advice?" He made this reply, so 
worthy of him : ''It is the precept of the Saviour; if 
you observe it, it is enough." 

St. Jane Frances, desiring that all the actions of 
her daughters might proceed from a spirit of char- 
ity, had inscribed upon the walls of the halls through 
which they most frequently passed the qualities 
which St. Paul gives to this sublime virtue : "Char- 
ity is patient, is kind ; charity envieth not ; dealeth 
not perversely ; is not puffed up ; is not ambitious ; 
seeketh not her own ; is not provoked to anger ; 
thinketh no evil." If it happened that one of her 
spiritual daughters failed in charity, she sent her to 
read this sentence, which she called the mirror of the 
monastery. She often read it herself in their pres- 
ence, then turning to them with face burning with 
love, she would say: "If I should speak with the 
tongue of an angel, and have not charity, I am noth- 
ing; if I should give my body to be burned, and 
have not charity, it would profit me nothing." 

And again St. Vincent de Paul declares, "It is a 
work most agreeable to Our Saviour to visit the 
sick and infirm, and to comfort them, as He Himself 
recommended this kind of mercy. But to perform it 
with greater zeal and merit, you must see Jesus 
Christ in the person of the sick, for Jesus Christ says 



Fraternal Charity. 455 

He will regard as done to Him what we do for the 
poor and infirm." 

St. Magdalene of Pazzi showed an inexpressible 
charity toward all the sick and weak in her monas- 
tery. She served them as well as she possibly could, 
solely for the love of God, looking upon them some- 
times as temples of the Holy Ghost, sometimes as 
sisters of the angels, sometimes as Jesus Christ Him- 
self. 

St. Louis, king of France, served the poor upon 
his knees, with head uncovered. He saw in them 
members of Jesus Christ, united in their suffer- 
ings with Him, and nailed with Him to the cross. 
St. John Berchmans found an inexpressible satisfac- 
tion in being with the sick. He had the gift of mak- 
ing them esteem and love their condition. It was 
his custom to read for them something pious, and to 
speak to them on subjects that might animate their 
devotion toward Mary, the Consoler of the afflicted. 

"To have for our neighbor the love that Our 
Saviour commands," says St. Francis de Sales, *'our 
hearts must be good, kind, complacent, even at 
a time w^hen we feel toward him a repugnance on 
account of some natural or moral defect. To love 
thus is to love for God's sake. The maxim of the 
saints was, that in loving and doing good we must 
never consider the person to whom we do the ser- 
vice but Him for whom it is performed." 

St. Jane Frances had a singular affection for those 
who by their faults had given her cause to suffer. 
"It is well that we have something to suffer," she 
said. ''Our Saviour has given us a fundamental 
law that we bear with our neighbor ; but if our 
neighbor has no fault, or if he does us no wrong, in 
what can we bear with him?" 

''True love, which alone is meritorious and du- 



456 Fraternal Charity, 

rable," wrote St. Francis de Sales, ''comes from a 
charity which makes us love our neighbor in God 
and for God ; that is, because God wills that we love 
him, and because our neighbor is dear to God, or 
because God is in him. It is not wrong to love him 
for other honorable motives, because he has done us 
some good, or because we see beautiful qualities in 
him, if at the same time we love him more for God 
than for these human motives. Nevertheless, the 
less we love him for these natural qualities, the more 
our love is pure and perfect. This pure love does 
not prevent us from loving certain persons more 
than others, such as our relatives, our benefactors, or 
those who are virtuous, when this preference comes 
from their closer resemblance to God, or because 
God wills it. Oh, how rare is this kind of love !'' 

This saint always considered God in his neighbor, 
and his neighbor in God. Hence the respect and 
love he showed to all, the civility in all his actions. 
It might be said that his courtesy to all was an act 
of religion. He wrote as follows to the Superior of 
a convent : ''Hold yourself well balanced with your 
daughters, that you may not distribute your affec- 
tions or favors only according to their natural quali- 
ties. How many there are who are not to our taste 
but who are agreeable to God ! Charity considers 
true virtue and the beauty of the soul, and diffuses 
itself over all without partiality." 

"A Christian ought in a manner to have three 
hearts in one,'' are the words of St. Benedict Joseph 
Labre, "one for God, another for his neighbor, and 
the third for himself." 

This great servant of God, of whom it may be 
said that the Holy Ghost was his teacher, points out 
in a most admirable manner these three objects of 
Christian charity — God, our neighbor, and our- 



Fraternal Charity. 457 

selves. ''It is necessary that the first heart," said he, 
'*be for God : pure and sincere, that it direct all its 
actions toward Him. that it breathe only with love 
for Him and with ardor in His service, that it em- 
brace all the crosses it pleases God to send. The 
second heart must be for our neighbor : generous, 
fearing no labor, no suffering in his service; com- 
passionate, praying for the conversion of sinners, 
for the souls in purgatory, and for those who are 
afflicted. The third heart, which is for himself, 
should be firm in its resolutions, abhorring all sin, 
giving the body to austerity and penance, and con- 
stantly cultivating a life of mortification and sacri- 
fice." The saint practiced to the letter what he 
taught. Through this means he attained a perfect 
charity, after the example of Jesus Christ. 

Prayer, 

My God, let me have for Thee the heart of a child 
who tenderly loves his father. Give me for my 
neighbor the heart of the best of mothers. For my- 
self, give me the heart of a judge who is most just. 



CHAPTER XLII. 
jfaltb anD Ibumot^ 

'T^ OT long ago, in the course of a conversation, a 
-"""S person remarked to me : ''But you Catholics 
are such gloomy persons !" I tried to refute the 
charge by smiling largely — probatiir ridendo. But 
my companion subsumed : '*0 ! I don't mean univer- 
sally and in every individual case. But your relig- 
ion — you know — your attitude, your temper, is se- 
vere and forbidding and all that." 

This saying seems typical. The days have gone 
by when Protestants believed that Catholic priests 
had horns and cloven feet ; but the days will hardly 
come when Protestants will give up their notion that 
Catholicism and gloom are synonymous, and that 
the outward badge of our religion is an abiding 
frown. Stripping the idea of all that is exaggerated 
in it, it does us honor, perhaps more honor than 
Catholics individually can in conscience accept; be- 
ing a testimony to the serious and wise character of 
our lives. For obviously life is no jest to a man who 
believes in its purpose and its eternal duration; who 
reads its value in the blood of Christ, as our Catho- 
lic faith teaches us to do. Indeed there is none of us 
but can wish sincerely that w^e merited a little better 
the title to somberness in the sense of Catholic seri- 
ousness and determination. 

But what we are charged with is not, of course, 
this right sincerity and purposefulness, but an ex- 
cess of seriousness, a depressing solemnity and 
heaviness — in a word, a lack of humor. Moreover, 
the charge is distinctively put against us, not as men. 



Faith and Humor, 459 

but as Catholics. We are said to be gloomy by a 
necessity flowing from our worship, from our be- 
lief. It would further seem that not Protestants 
only, but even Catholics themselves occasionally en- 
tertain this notion of the harshness and narrowness 
and cheerless rigorism of our faith. It may not be 
easy to show such as these that in truth our religion 
is in reality instinct with the subtlest, deepest, rich- 
est humor possible to men. Indeed so essential is 
great humor to Catholic faith that the practical pres- 
ence or absence of this humor is not a bad test of a 
man's vigor or weakness in faith. 

Humor is the just appreciation of the incongruous 
things of life. That is a part definition, at least ; for 
humor is an elusive quality, existing in the concrete, 
dealing with the concrete, surrounding living things 
and entering into them, as the oxygen of the air 
enters into and vivifies our blood. Men feel its pres- 
ence and recognize it and honor it and delight in it ; 
but can no more analyze it than one can analyze life, 
which departs at the touch of the dissecting instru- 
ment. One takes up Henry IV., or Alice in Won- 
derland, or The Frogs, or Three Men in a Boat, or 
Hiidibras, or Mr. Dooley's Philosophy — and grows 
mellow with them, and wise, and says : "What humor 
may be in the categories, I know not ; but they who 
wTote these things are humorists, children of com- 
prehension and of wisdom." They compel us, not 
to laugh, but to smile. They widen our horizon and 
draw out our sympathies. In gentleness and with 
great pity and love, we look from end to end of the 
earth and are filled with kindly merriment at the 
misfits we see. 

But we know this, that humor is built on truth 
and knowledge. A man who knows only a fraction 
of himself and others can not have that plenitude 



460 Faith and Humor. 

of humor of one who knows the whole. The humor 
that is bounded by this world is feeble beside that 
humor which draws from earth and heaven, from 
time and eternity. As the field of humor broadens, 
so itself becomes larger, kindlier, more powerful, 
more soothing. That conceited fellow strutting be- 
fore me, preening himself ridiculously — if he is a 
unit to me, a solitary specimen, I can not smile at 
him with half the genial relish that comes from con- 
templating him as one of a multitude of his kind, a 
concretion of a folly that I know to be general, that 
I know to exist in myself also. This vexation, 
which I make light of because I know that to-mor- 
row I shall not be troubled by it, can make me merry 
if I put it with its million tiny fellows in the souls of 
all men and set the puny heap of littlenesses against 
the background of eternity. 

So, also, humor grows in richness and subtle in- 
fluence as its source in a man is less fitful, more 
steadfast and abiding. What is the momentary flash 
of pleasantry, in comparison to that strong persis- 
tent flood of humor that has become one with a man, 
that ebbs and flows like the sea, but like the sea 
never diminishes, never departs ! In truth, those 
men only have real humor at all, whose humor is a 
part of their lives, pulsing in their every thought 
and action, flowing out of their deepest, most en- 
during principles. For when we have gone into 
the consideration of humor as far as we dare do 
without losing our concept of it, we come to a very 
wonderful thought. Hilaire Belloc puts it thus : 
'Tor I know that we laughers have a gross cousin- 
ship with the Most High, and it is this contrast and 
perpetual quarrel which feeds a spring of merriment 
in the soul of a sane man.'' 

Can one wonder then at our coupling ''humor and 



Faith and Humor. 461 

faith" ? For faith is the solution and interpretation 
of Hfe, the bestower of knowledge and of wisdom 
more than knowledge. Faith widens our limited 
days here into endless days, and lays bare men's 
souls and the secrets of God, and gives us that mas- 
tery of life which is needed to laugh at life, and 
shows us the relation of all things and their har- 
mony, and what preserves that harmony and is 
admirable, and what jars with that harmony and is 
laughable. Knowledge and powxr, wisdom and 
love, these are at the roots of all right humor and 
ring in every laugh that befits the soul of a man. 

"Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem'' — 
can bring smiles where tears were, and light where 
darkness was, and courage and saneness of view 
where all was gloomy and distorted by sadness. 
''The fashion of this world passeth away'' — and we 
alone who know this are the truly light-hearted of 
the world. ''You shall take none of these things 
with you," says St. Paul; and I have seen a man 
smile through his tears beside the grave of his son, 
because he knew that afterward he himself would 
leave in another grave the heartache begun at this 
one. 

No, our faith does not lack humor. It abounds 
in humor, it is humor; the tenderest, most cheery, 
most lasting humor; so tender, so great, so subtle, 
that only those who have it can know it for such. 
In common occurrence, the drollest remarks are lost 
on men who have no drollery in them : so is the hu- 
mor of faith an unknow^n thing to all who do not 
possess it. 

St. Lawrence, directing the roasting of his own 
body with the nicety of a cook ; -our Irish peasant 
who says, "Thanks be to God, my rheumatism is 
much worse to-day ;" our nuns who can be merry in 



462 Faith and Humor. 

the abode of death ; — these are some instances of the 
humor of faith. In its fulness, perhaps only the 
saints have it — those serene, large beings, beneath 
whose awe-inspiring calmness runs an unbroken 
ripple of laughter at the follies and pettinesses that 
surround them ; whom no adversity disheartens and 
no sufferings sour ; whose eyes are bright with eter- 
nal merriment looking on the fashion of this world 
which passeth away. 

I have before me, while writing, the picture of a 
young man clad in cassock and surplice ; a man of 
lean ascetic face ; who holds in his hand a crucifix, 
and stands by a table on which rest a discarded 
coronet and a penitential scourge. Beneath the pic- 
ture are the words, ''Quid hoc ad (eternitatemf 
The picture is familiar to all of us, and represents 
that great saint and universal patron of Catholic 
youth, Aloysius Gonzaga. The legend under it is a 
pet saying of Aloysius, a pertinent question applied 
by him to the thousand and one minutiae of daily 
life — ''How does this look in the Hght of eternity?" 
We can imagine this boy-saint, as he passed through 
the streets of Rome on his way to or from school, or 
to some hospital or church. An unbeliever would 
be chilled at his constraint and austerity. ''Another 
example of monkish, Catholic gloom — a zealot, a 
fanatic; a man bereft of all sanity or humaneness, 
looking at life in warped, crabbed manner!'' Yet 
the unbeliever would be the fanatic, the narrow- 
minded man ; and Aloysius the humorist. For if the 
gorge of our spectator-friend rose; if he gave ex- 
pression to his scorn in words ; if even he spat upon 
this Jesuit bigot, Aloysius would have said to him- 
self, ''Quid hoc ad ceternitatemf' and would have 
gone on his way with a smile, making merry in his 
heart. 



Faith and Humor. 463 

Fancy a man who all day long, in every varying 
circumstance, was asking himself, ''Quid hoc ad 
ceternitatem?'' What an infinity of laughable 
things he would see ! What a wide, kindly, smiHng 
view of life he would acquire ! Think of the count- 
less occurrences that fret and annoy, that drive a 
man into himself and shut up his outlook over the 
world which the good God has given him, that make 
him petty and irritable and sour — how they would 
go down before such a question, as rank weeds be- 
fore a scythe ; how they would be lost sight of, as 
a swarm of gnats becomes invisible under the full 
light of an unclouded noon ! 

Whatever be the definition of humor— and it mat- 
ters exactly nothing what it be — the essence of it is 
saneness, balance, breadth ; and complete saneness^ 
undisturbed balance, infinite breadth, are the gifts 
of faith and of faith only. Knowledge stops at the 
edge of the earth. Faith goes on beyond the stars, 
illimitable, calm, all-comprehending. The wisdom 
of the world is a surface wisdom and breeds only a 
surface humor. The wisdom of faith reaches from 
heaven to hell, into the heart of all living ; and when 
it smiles the angels of God smile with it. The hu- 
mor of men may be on the lips and in the mind only. 
The humor of faith must come from the heart, from 
the "understanding heart.'' 

St. Paul bids us "rejoice in the Lord always: 
again, I say, rejoice.'' For ours is the heritage of 
joy; since it is given us to know what God knows, 
and to love all that He loves, to feel the presence of 
His angels round about us, to consider life in its 
completeness, and to look forward unavertedly, be- 
holding the brightness of eternal peace and the sea 
which is about the throne of God, where the world 
looks out upon only chaos and the night. Our faith 



464 Faith and Humor. 

has a higher purpose than merely to make us wise 
and patient and kindly. The humor of life is not 
its object but it is its true and certain concomitant ; 
growing as it grows, waning as it wanes. If it can 
with truth be said of us that we lack humor, we 
must blame the lack of it not upon our religion, our 
faith, but upon our unfaith and our irreligion.* 

*William T. Kane, S.J., in The American Ecclesiastical 
Review. 



1 




m^ 


l«!^ 'SL 


% 


Jk'^ 



The Blessed Virgin receives Holy Communion at the 
hands of St. John. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 
Cbecrfulnees, 

C5[ T. Paul admonishes us: ''Rejoice in the Lord 
^^ always: again, I say, rejoice!'' (Phil. iv. 4.) 
And the Prophet Habacuc sings: ''I will rejoice in 
the Lord, and I will joy in God my Jesus. The 
Lord God is my strength and He will make my 
feet like the feet of harts; and He, the Conqueror, 
will lead me upon my high places singing psalms*' 
(Habac. iii. 18, 19). There is an apostolate of 
cheerfulness as well as of prayer and of preaching 
by word and example. Like a sweet, fragrant 
flower by the roadside, whose bright loveli- 
ness is a joy to every one who passes by, our 
cheerfulness is a blessing to all with whom we 
come in contact. A Religious, merely by being 
cheerful, exerts a quiet yet potent influence for 
good. Let us bear this in mind that we can be 
helpful to souls, that we can encourage them 
and strengthen them in good by our cheerful- 
ness and amiability. The author of The Art of Be- 
ing Happy tells us : 'Tt is well to do our duty, but 
sometimes this is not enough for the happiness of 
others and our own. We must do our duty with joy, 
with eagerness, with love. We must not keep count 
of what we do, nor stop strictly and sternly at the 
exact limit of duty. Let us learn to devote ourselves 
generously, above all when there is question of ful- 
filling certain obligations of our state, position, etc., 
by which we do good to our brethren. Let us learn 
to show always a smiling face, although our work 
is distasteful to us or overwhelms us. And after 



466 Cheerfulness. 

having worked hard let us take care not to recall in 
conversation the pains we have taken, the fatigue 
that we have imposed upon ourselves. Then our 
duty accomplished will please every one : God first, 
then men, and last of all our ow^n poor heart." 

Our Lord Himself has said: ''Be of good cheer!'' 
And He said this substantially many times. Jesus 
was indeed a Man of sorrows, but He was not a sad 
man. His face must always have reflected the 
serenity of His soul. He was meek and humble, 
gentle and amiable. ''He went about doing good to 
all." 

From the Gospel narrative we can . glean that 
Jesus possessed a cheerful temper, serenity mingled 
with tender seriousness, a most engaging presence, 
and a winning personality. Children came to Him 
willingly and loved to linger near Him, and how 
can any one imagine Him embracing and caressing 
little children without a smile of loving kindness? 
Men followed Him in crowds, fascinated by His 
charm of manner and of speech. And into woman's 
heart came the thought : What happiness to be the 
mother of such a son! 

Among the saints — the close followers of Christ — 
St. Francis de Sales pre-eminently commands our 
admiration and our love for his Christlike character- 
istics of cheerful serenity, meekness, humility, pa- 
tience, charity, kindness, sweetness of temper and 
suavity of deportment. Like Our Saviour, the 
gentle Bishop of Geneva loved to make use of com- 
parisons drawn from nature to illustrate his 
sermons, which are so replete with good cheer and 
helpfulness. 

As we read in the introduction to The Mystical 
Flora of St. Francis de Sales: "In this he holds a 
place peculiarly his own. His images do not recall 



Cheerfulness. 467 

scenes of Cappadocian gloom, like those of St. Basil, 
nor, like St. Jerome's, the harshness of the desert. 
But rather, as the clear blue waters of the lakes 
of his own Savoy soften without distorting the 
rugged outlines of the overhanging hills, which 
they reflect bright with sunshine, gay with flowers, 
and crowned with teeming vines, so does his gentle 
spirit present to our minds the loftiest doctrines in 
all the grandeur of truth, and yet clothed in images 
of beauty, that charm the fancy while they flash new 
light upon the understanding. But most of all is 
this true of him as he comes in from the garden with 
comparisons gathered from the flowers that bloom 
therein," The spiritual comparisons of St. Fran- 
cis drawn from plants and flowers make clear to us 
*'how one may draw good thoughts and holy aspira- 
tions from everything that presents itself in all the 
varietv of this mortal life" (Devout Life, Part 11. , 
Ch. XIII.). 

Ornsby, in his Life of the saint, says : 'There ap- 
pears in the mind of St. Francis de Sales that union 
of sweetness and strength, of manly power and femi- 
nine delicacy, of profound knowledge and practical 
dexterity, w^hich constitutes a character formed at 
once to win and subdue minds of almost every type 
and age. As the rose among flowers, so is he among 
saints. From the thorny, woody fiber of the brier 
comes forth that blossom which unites all that can 
make a flower lovely and attractive ; and from the 
hot and vehement nature of the young Savoyard 
came a spiritual bloom, whose beauty and fragrance 
were perfect in an extraordinary degree. All things 
that command respect and attract love were found in 
St. Francis." 

And this explains his power as a spiritual guide, 
his mighty influence over sinners, his success as a 



468 Cheerfulness. 

peacemaker, and his helpfulness to all with whom he 
came in contact. 

As followers of Christ, and in imitation of the 
saints, let us cultivate the habit of cheerfulness and 
pray for the spirit of gladness, which is rooted in 
charity, in the peace of a good conscience, in grati- 
tude to God for His blessings, in Christian hope and 
confidence, in perfect submission to the divine will; 
and let us do this not only for our own good but also 
for the happiness and betterment of others. 

''Every . life is meant 
To help all lives ; each man should live 
For all men's betterment/'* 

''Serviis servontm Dei'' ''Servant of the servants 
of God,'' is one of the titles of the Pope. The Prince 
of Wales has borne for his motto '7 serve'' since the 
fourteenth century. In a way we are all one 
another's servants. St. Thomas Aquinas says : 
''That wherein one man excels another man is given 
him of God that therewith he may serve other men," 
Our blessed Saviour tells us of Himself : "The Son 
of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minis- 
ter" (Matt. XX. 28). At the Last Supper He 
washed His apostles' feet, saying to them : "I have 
given you an example." His example and His 
teaching are that the highest must not disdain the 
lowest, and that all are to serve all. Now we can 
all serve or help others by our cheerfulness and 
amiability. A cheerful person creates a wholesome 
moral atmosphere arotmd him, and exerts an 
invigorating influence upon his environment. 

There is great merit also in cheerfulness, when it 
is cultivated from a supernatural motive, when it is 
the fruit of divine and fraternal charity. It requires 

*AIice Gary. 



Cheerfulness. 469 

self-control and self-denial to maintain cheerfulness 
under all circumstances — in sickness, in pain, in sor- 
row, in poverty, in misunderstanding, and in un- 
pleasant surroundings. Christian cheerfulness im- 
plies something more than natural temperament; it 
means self-denial — self-control. Natural disposition 
should not be offered as an excuse for being morose 
and rude. By the grace of God and with an earnest 
effort we can overcomie our evil nature. You find 
yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful per- 
sons ; why not make earnest efforts to be helpful to 
others by your own cheerfulness and amiability? 
Strew the road with flowers for others, and in turn 
your own pathway will be scattered wnth roses. 

In Ye Are Chrisfs, we read of a virtue which 
Aristotle called by the pretty Greek name of Eutra- 
pelia. Father Rickaby, S.J., writes in the above- 
mentioned book : ''Eiitrapelia may be defined 'play- 
fulness in good taste.' Aristotle himself defines it: 
'a chastened love of putting out one's strength upon 
others.' There is in every ordinary boy a disposi- 
tion to romp, to play the fool, and to destroy prop- 
erty ; a disposition which ought to be sternly re- 
pressed, subdued, and kept under by those re- 
sponsible for the boy's education, beginning with 
himself. Otherwise the boy can have no place in 
civilized society : he will turn out a young savage. 
But though repressed, the disposition should not be 
killed within him and extirpated altogether. It is a 
defect of character to have no playfulness, no droll- 
ery, no love of witnessing or even creating a ridic- 
ulous situation. Entrap elia knows exactly when and 
how to be funny, and where and when to stop. 'All 
things have their season,' says Ecclesiastes (iii. i, 
4) , 'a time to weep, and a time to laugh : a time to 
mourn, and a time to dance.' A proud and quarrel- 



470 Cheerfulness. 

some man is never a funny man; and it may be 
doubted if ever an heresiarch enjoyed a joke. Did 
Calvin, for instance, after he was turned seventeen, 
ever laugh except in derision of others, that bitter, 
insolent laughter which Holy Scripture 'counts 
error,' and calls 'the laughter of a fool' (Eccles. ii. 
2; vii. 4-7)? Many a difficulty, many an incipient 
quarrel, many a dark temptation is dissipated the 
moment one catches sight of some humorous side to 
the matter/' 

Life is a serious thing, and on that very account 
we require some play to set it off. That is why we 
find excellent men, saintly men, sometimes talking 
nonsense and playing the fool. Sir Thomas More 
could at times be very playful. Goethe refers to the 
eccentricities of St. PhiHp Neri as ''his whimsical 
sallies." "These sallies," as we read in the Psychol- 
ogy of the Saints, "were often full of good sense, 
as, for instance, when the Pope sent him to visit a 
monastery in the neighborhood of Rome in order to 
examine into the sanctity of a Religious said to be 
favored with revelations and ecstasies. The weather 
was abominable, and Philip, who had started on a 
mule, arrived at the convent soaked to the skin and 
covered with mud. The Sister was brought to him, 
and she appeared full of sweetness and unction. By 
way of beginning his theological examination, Philip 
sat down, held out his leg, and said to her : 'Pull 
off my boots.' The Sister drew herself up, scandal- 
ized. Philip had seen enough. He seized his hat 
and went back to the Vatican, to tell the Holy Father 
that a Religious so devoid of humility could not 
possibly possess the graces and virtues with which 
she was credited. It seems that in our own times a 
similar test has been held sufficient. A certain Rose 
Tamisier was supposed to be favored with extraor- 



Cheerfulness. 471 

dinary graces. A prudent ecclesiastic came to see 
her. 'You are the saint, aren't you ?' he said to her. 
'Yes, Father,' was the answer. The illusion was in- 
stantly detected.'' 

^'Eiitrapeha/' as Father Rickaby says, ''is a blend 
of playfulness and earnestness. Without earnest- 
ness playfulness degenerates into frivolity. 'O Lord, 
give me not over to an irreverent and frivolous 
mind' (Ecclus. xxiii. 6)." 

In the earliest days of the Society of Jesus, there 
was a novice much given to laughing. One day he 
met Father Ignatius, and thought that he was in for 
a scolding. But St. Ignatius said to him : ''Child, I 
want you to laugh and be joyful in the Lord. A 
Rehgious has no cause for sadness, but many 
reasons for rejoicing; and that you may always be 
glad and joyful, be humble always and always 
obedient." 

A gentle writer urging us to encourage others 
with cheerful kindness says : "You w^ould not leave 
those plants in your window without water, or re- 
fuse to open the shutters that the sunlight might fall 
upon them, but you leave some human flower to suf- 
fer for want of appreciation or the sunlight of en- 
couragement. Utter the kind word when you can. 
Give the helping praise when you see that it is 
deserved. The thought that 'no one knows and 
no one cares' blights many a bud of promise." 

It is evident that the Religious who is always 
cheerful, always rejoicing in the Lord in the ex- 
acting routine of her daily occupations, is a blessing 
to her community. She will do her ow^n work w^ell 
and lighten the burdens of others. She will attract 
souls and draw them with her along the way of per- 
fection. Montaigne says : "The most manifest 
sign of wisdom is contented cheerfulness, and it is 



472 Cheerfulness. 

undoubtedly true that a cheerful man has a creative 
power which a pessimist never possesses/' 

"A merry heart goes all the day; 
A sad tires in a mile." 

Lew Wallace tells us : ''A man's task is always 
light if his heart is light/' and there is wisdom in 
the Spanish proverb : ''Who sings in grief procures 
relief/' 

The presence of a good and cheerful Religious 
acts like an invigorating tonic upon all around her. 
Nothing disturbs the equanimity of her spirit, 
which springs from the peace of God in her heart. 
The author of The hnitation says: ''The joy of the 
just is from God and in God, and their rejoicing is 
in the truth. If there be joy in the world, truly the 
man of pure heart possesses it. Rejoice when thou 
hast done well." 

The path of the Religious is indeed "the King's 
highway of the holy cross," the rugged path of pen- 
ance and mortification ; but love makes all things 
easy, and by the cross the spouse of Christ becomes 
like to her divine Lover. In the cross is our life, our 
salvation, our resurrection, and by the cross we 
attain to peace on earth and to eternal happiness. 

"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy," but the 
practice of mortification should not, and indeed as a 
rule does not, make the Religious sad or depressed. 
Joy is a gift of the Holy Ghost, one of His precious 
fruits, and characterizes the true, faithful spouse of 
Christ. 

Father Dignam, S.J., says in his Retreats: "All 
discouragement comes from pride. Failure has 
nothing to do with pleasing God. A soul who fails 
and makes her act of contrition twenty times in the 
day will probably have given God more glory, and 



Cheerfulness, 473 

done more for Him, than one who has gone quietly 
on all day without failure ; God created some people 
(it may be said) to serve Him by failure; for they 
give Him glory by their acts of contrition and humil- 
iation, while if they had succeeded, their pride would 
have made them displeasing to Him. 

''A great want in our lives is the spirit of grati- 
tude. I reverently believe most firmly the words of St. 
Augustine : 'Gratitude is the substance of religious 
life.' God is so good; everything that happens, 
everything which He either sends or permits, is for 
our good, and a true subject of gratitude; if wx do 
not see it now, we shall when we come to die. 

'^Whenever a thought of sadness occurs to you, 
ask yourself what is self-love doing here? What Is 
the love of the interests of the Sacred Heart doing ? 
Then the sadness will not find the sympathy it has 
hitherto found. All sorrow for graces abused which 
comes from God, from true contrition, is peaceful 
and happy ; it only wonders at God's goodness to it, 
after treating Him so badly. Sorrow from wounded 
self-love says : 'I might have been so different if I 
had not abused those graces, I might have been so 
high in the spiritual life, instead of being only just at 
the very bottom of the ladder.' It is all self, little or 
no thought of God's honor, of God's glory. For the 
future, then, true gratitude; and, in consequence, 
true peace. Suffer Our Lord to fulfil His words : 
Teace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.' " 

Furthermore, the thought of heaven, and of that 
blessed time when we shall see God in the fulness of 
His beauty, ought to keep our hearts overflowing 
with peace and joy. We can be always bright and 
cheerful if we keep our eyes directed toward the 
eternal shores, to the blessed land of the saints, 
where the sky is ever cloudless, where the sun 



474 Cheerfulness. 

of happiness never sets, where a perfect torrent 
of delight inundates the soul, where, as the be- 
loved disciple tells us, "God shall wipe away all 
tears, and death shall be no more, nor mourning, 
nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more; for the 
former things are passed away/' 

Apropos of this subject. Father Henry Calmer, 
S.J., of blessed memory, who for many years filled 
the pulpit of St. Xavier Church, Cincinnati, and 
held vast audiences spellbound by his eloquence, 
wrote the following hitherto unpublished lines while 
visiting a Trappist monastery : 

ETERNITY. 

The silent monks prayed in their oaken stalls; 
In the tangled grass by the abbey walls 
Bloomed the roses red with their dropping leaves, 
And roses pink as the dreams youth weaves, 
And roses white as when love deceives ; 
How they bloomed and swayed in the garden there, 
While the bell tolled out in the warm still air: 
''Eternity!" 

''Eternity!" the great bell rang. 
"Leave life and love and youth," it sang; 
And the red rose scattered its petals wide, 
And the pink rose dreamed in the sun, and .sighed, 
And the white rose pined on its stem and died. 
O Life, Love, Youth ! Ye are sweet, ye are strong, 
But barren lives shall bloom in a long 

Eternity ! 

Where peace and interior joy abound there also 
cheerfulness of mien and manner ought to be found. 
And if peace and happiness are not found in the con- 
vent, where on earth shall we look for these bless- 
ings? Happiness presupposes peace, a threefold 
peace: Peace with God, peace with ourselves, and 
peace with our neighbor. That man is happy who 
lives in peace. 



Cheerfulness. 475 

In the Holy Night, when Our Saviour was born, 
the angels sang: ''On earth, peace!' On the eve of 
His Passion, Our Lord said to His disciples in His 
touching farewell address : ''Peace I leave with yoii, 
My peace I give unto you/' And after the Resur- 
rection, He greeted His followers repeatedly with 
the words : ''Peace be to you/' Peace must be a 
great blessing, a priceless treasure; it is indeed 
happiness. 

The Church prays for peace daily in the Canon 
of the Mass. "Dona nobis pacemT is the third 
petition of the "Agnus Dei/' ''Give us peace !'' 
And in the beautiful prayers before communion the 
Church again asks for peace. "Pax huic domuir 
''Peace be to this house !" the priest says on enter- 
ing a sick-room to administer the Last Sacraments. 
"Pax!" is the simple device of the illustrious Order 
of St. Benedict, in connection with the watchword : 
"Ut in omnibus gloriiicetur Deus!" "That in all 
things God may be glorified !" This is substantially 
the same as the chant of the angels : "Gloria in ex- 
cel sis Deo et in terra pax hominibus 1" "Glory to 
God in the highest and peace on earth to men of 
good will !" To seek God's glory means peace and 
happiness to man. His glory and our happiness are 
inseparably united. This is man's destiny, as the 
little Catechism teaches : "To know God, to love 
Him, to serve Him and to be happy with Him for- 
ever." This is true philosophy : Man tends natur- 
ally to happiness as to his last end, "a state of free- 
dom from all evil and enjoyment of every good that 
can be desired, joined with the certainty of its ever- 
lasting duration." 

In this world real happiness consists in the peace 
and joys of a good conscience and in the hope of an 
eternal reward which springs from a well-spent life. 



476 Cheerfulness. 

**In the next world," as Archbishop Meurin says iji 
his Ethics, ''happiness consists in the fullest knowl- 
edge of the infinite truth, which is God Himself, in 
the most ardent love of the supreme goodness and 
beauty, which again is nothing else but God, and in 
the perpetual possession of supreme bliss, which 
consists in everlasting friendship and union with 
God." 

The will of God, then, is this, that in the present 
life, in whatever circumstances divine Providence 
may place us, we live virtuously, avoiding" evil, and 
doing good. 

Peace with God implies the state of grace, a good 
conscience, submission to and fulfilment of the divine 
will. Peace with self implies the mastery over one's 
passions, the consciousness of duty well done, the 
approval of one's conscience. Peace with one's 
neighbor implies the commandment of love, the ob- 
servance of the golden rule : ''As you would that 
men should do to you, do you also to them in like 
manner" (Luke vi. 31). This threefold peace is the 
basis of happiness. This happiness can not fail to 
be the portion of a true Religious, and the fruit of 
this happiness ought to be cheerfulness. A cheer- 
ful Religious is a rebuke to the world, whose vo- 
taries make it a matter of reproach against religion 
that it sends men to learn the solemn lessons of the 
grave and casts a blight upon life, that meditation 
on the eternal truths tends to stifle endeavor, to par- 
alyze our energies, and to sadden our days. Religion 
really tends to gladden our hearts and to make our 
days calm and tranquil, as we have already pointed 
out. 

"Rejoice in the Lord always!" applies especially 
to Religious. They ought always to be cheerful, and 
their joy should find expression in deeds of kindness 



Cheerfulness. 477 

and helpfulness to all with whom they come in con- 
tact. They ought to heed the words of Our Lord to 
His followers : ''Be of good cheer !" Life to-day is 
so strenuous that there is constant need of relief 
from its strain, and a sunny, cheerful, gracious soul 
is like a sea-breeze in sultry August or like a 
'"draught of cool refreshment drained by fevered 
lips." 

The author of The Floral Apostles, referring to 
the crocus and the primrose as the emblems of cheer- 
fulness, says : "Cheerfulness furnishes the best 
soil for the growth of goodness and virtue. It is also 
the test of moral and mental tonics. 'A glad heart 
maketh a cheerful countenance, but by grief of mind 
the spirit is cast down' (Prov. xv. 13). 'A joyful 
mind maketh age flourishing; a sorrowful spirit 
drietli up the bones' (Prov. xvii. 22)." 

We can all acquire greater cheerfulness by assum- 
ing the right mental attitude toward our environ- 
ment and circumstances, by looking habitually at the 
bright side of things, by training ourselves persist- 
ently to see the good and pleasant things in our com- 
mon, daily life. 

Some persons seem to have eyes only for the dis- 
agreeable things that happen to come into their life ; 
they forget or overlook their blessings, and brood 
over their trials and misfortunes. 

The soothing line in The Rainy Day: ''Behind 
the clouds is the sun still shining," does not comfort 
them. Stevenson says : 

"Two men looked out through their prison bars; 
The one saw mud and the other stars." 

Let us learn to look ^t life not to find misery and 
discomfort in it, but to find goodness, gladness, 
and beauty. The author of The Art of Being Happy 



478 Cheerfulness. 

relates the following anecdote : ''A poet was gazing 
one day at a beautiful rose-tree. 'What a pity/ said 
he, 'that these roses have thorns !' A man who was 
passing by remarked : 'Let us rather thank our good 
God for having allowed these thorns to have roses.' 
Ah ! how we also ought to thank God for the many 
joys and blessings that He grants us in spite of our 
sins, instead of complaining about the slight troubles 
that He sends us." 

"A doctor who has made a specialty of nervous 
diseases," so we read, "has found a new remedy for 
the blues. His prescription amounts to this : 'Keep 
the corners of your mouth turned up ; then you can't 
feel blue.' The simple direction is : 'Smile ; 
keep on smiling; don't stop smiling.' It sounds 
ridiculous, doesn't it? Well, just try turning up the 
corners of your mouth, regardless of your mood, 
and see how it makes you feel ; then draw the cor- 
ners of your mouth down, and note the effect, and 
you will be willing to declare 'there's something in 
it !' " A good suggestion in regard to any past trouble 
or humiliation is this : "Let it go !" "Forget it !" An 
optimist writes : "If you had an unfortunate expe- 
rience this last year, forget it. If you have made a 
failure in your speech, your song, your book, or 
your article ; if you have been placed in an embar- 
rassing position, if you have been deceived and hurt 
by one whom you looked upon as a friend, if you 
have been slandered and abused, do not dwell upon 
it, do not brood over it ; forget it ! There is not a 
single redeeming feature in these memories. Do not 
make yourself unhappy by keeping on the walls of 
your heart the pictures of vanished joys and faded 
hopes. Forget them. County your blessings. Be of 
good cheer." 

As regards those faults of our neighbors that ir- 



Cheerfulness, 479 

ritate us, it will help us to be more cheerful and ami- 
able if we remember our own shortcomings, which 
they have to endure. St. Paul admonishes us: 
"Bear ye one another's burdens and so you shall 
fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. vi. 2). Do not look 
for mistakes or faults to censure in others ; let us 
rather look for an excuse for our brethren ; let us 
admire their virtues and imitate them. The follow- 
ing lines can not be pronounced elegant, but they 
contain much wisdom : 

''There is so much good in the worst of us, 
And so much bad in the best of us, 
That it ill behooves any of us 
To rail at the faults of the rest of us." 

The author of The Art of Being Happy says: 
''There is a word which can not be said too often to 
every Christian whom God has destined to live, con- 
verse and labor in the society of his fellow-crea- 
tures : Be indulgent. Yes, be indulgent ; it is neces- 
sary for others, and it is necessary for your own 
sake. Forget the little troubles that others may 
cause you ; keep up no resentment for the incon- 
siderate or unfavorable words that may have been 
said about you; excuse the mistakes and awkward 
blunders of which you are the victim ; always make 
out good intentions for those who have done you any 
wrong by imprudent acts or speeches ; in a word, 
smile at everything, show a pleasant face on all oc- 
casions ; maintain an inexhaustible fund of good- 
ness, patience, and gentleness. Thus you will be at 
peace with all your brethren ; your love for them will 
sufifer no alteration, and their love for you w^ill in- 
crease day by day. But, above all, you will practice 
in an excellent manner Christian charity, which is 
impossible without this toleration and indulgence at 
every instant." 



480 Cheerfulness, 

In conclusion, then, let us resolve to be cheerful 
and amiable at all times and under all circumstances. 
By keeping this resolution we shall glorify God, gain 
much merit ourselves, and be a blessing to others. 
Cheerfulness makes the daily burden of duty light 
and renders one strong for every struggle. It will 
be a blessing to ourselves and to all with whom we 
come in contact. 

A cheerful Religious, in particular, by her buoy- 
ancy, geniality, and amiability, will attract souls to 
herself and draw them easily under her influence 
with a view to their sanctification and salvation. Her 
influence on others will be like summer warmth on 
field and forest, stirring up and calling forth the best 
that is in them, and urging them on to walk more 
swiftly, more bravely, more joyously in the way of 
perfection. And thus she will serve and please her 
Lord and Master, the divine Lover of souls. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

tCbe Upoetlcebiv ot •ftinDneea. 

^^HERE is a missioner sent from heaven whose 
^^ gentle influence is of great importance in the 
exercise of our apostleship. Its name is kindness. 

We do not beHeve there is a heart on earth, how- 
ever hardened in worldliness or long habits of sin, 
that is altogether callous to the influence of this 
heaven-sent missioner. 

We may judge of the beneficial effects of kindness 
by the contrary results of its antithesis, unkindness, 
which, resembling a withering frost or a biting blast 
sweeping over the fair things of earth, scatters de- 
struction as it passes. 

How many a noble work has been nipped in the 
bud by the blast of an unkind judgment; how many 
a generous heart has been crushed in its brightest 
hopes by a jealous criticism; how many a holy in- 
spiration, destined to bear abundant fruit for God 
and souls, has been forced back into the poor heart 
from whence it had ascended, there to be stifled ut- 
terly and forever, leaving that heart, as the poet so 
graphically represents it, "like a deserted bird's nest 
filled with snow,'' because unkindness had robbed it 
of that for which, perhaps, alone it cared to live. 
How much, then, \vt may believe has been lost to 
the world of all that is good and great and beautiful 
through the instrumentality of imkindness ; and if it 
be thus, what developments, on the other hand, may 
we not expect, in the order of grace as wxll as of 
nature, in the hearts and minds of men beneath the 
genial sun of kindness ? 



482 The Apostleship of Kindness. 

Even in the common things of life, and in the 
natural order, how striking are the results of the 
passage of this heaven-sent missioner, this angel of 
light and consolation. 

The same sorrow, which perhaps has weighed on 
us for years, may be lying on our hearts ; we may be 
in the same set of embarrassing circumstances; no 
change may have taken place in our material posi- 
tion, in our actual trials, but a word, a little word has 
been addressed to us, and it has fallen on our weary 
and desolate hearts like a voice from the true home 
of our souls, or like the harp of David soothing 
SauFs troubled spirit. It has been Hke a ray of sun- 
shine, penetrating the dark shadow hanging over us, 
and calling forth once more the flowers in our hearts 
that were drooping there for want of it. That word 
of kindness has wrought a work — silently, unob- 
trusively — a work whose blessed fruit, perhaps, will 
endure throughout eternity. 

Let us then be kind if we would promote the inter- 
ests of that Heart of which kindness was the special 
characteristic. Let it not be in isolated acts — ''few 
and far between ;'' this is not the kindness of Jesus' 
Heart, the missioner who is to do His work and ad- 
vocate His interests in souls. No — it must be like 
prayer — a habitual disposition of heart, which is 
ready to manifest itself without any effort and al- 
most unconsciously, at all seasons and in all circum- 
stances, and thus it will be with hearts which are 
united to that Heart of love. Kindness will flow from 
them, as it were, naturally, just as the flowers give 
forth their perfume, the birds their song, and as the 
sun shines down alike on good and bad, as it goes on 
its daily circuit — because all this is of their very na- 
ture. In the most trivial things of daily life the 
spirit of kindness should render itself evident. God 



The Apostleship of Kindness, 483 

is kind in small things as well as in great ones. This 
is manifested in the works of creation, but it is 
brought much more home to us in the Incarnation of 
the Word, in which the loving kindness and con- 
siderateness of the Sacred Heart are shown forth so 
touchingly in all its dealings with men. 

Kindness is as the bloom upon the fruit — it renders 
charity and religion attractive and beautiful. With- 
out it even charitable works lose their power of win- 
ning souls, for without kindness the idea of love of 
anything supernatural — in a word, of Jesus, is not 
conveyed to the mind by the works performed^^ even 
though they be done from a right motive. There is 
such a thing as doing certain exterior actions, which 
are intended to be charitable, ungraciously. Now, 
actions thus performed do not manifest the kindness 
of the Heart of Jesus, nor will they be efficacious in 
extending the empire of His love or in wanning souls 
to His kingdom. The fruit may be sound, but the 
bloom is not on it; hence it is uninviting. There- 
fore, advisedly have we said that kindness has a mis- 
sion to perform on earth which no other agent can 
effect. It is a lever specially designed by God to 
loosen the hard clods of earth in the hearts of men, 
in order that the water beneath those clods might 
gush forth again and irrigate the land grown barren 
from its hardness ; it is a genial sun lighting on the 
frozen snow of hearts, which no other influence could 
melt ; it is as the rod of Moses, at whose touch the 
waters flowed forth from the arid rock of Horeb ; 
for even so does kindness, with magic power, touch 
the barren rock of pride, opening up salutary well- 
springs in the soul, and causing eyes which had not 
wept for long to shed tears of chastening sorrow. 

Let us then be kind, since kindness is a missioner 
whose apostolate is designed for the obtainment of 



484 The Apostleship' of Kindness. 

such great things in the interests of the Heart of 
Jesus ; and while we exercise this meek apostolate 
among those with whom we come into personal con- 
tact let us be kind in our thoughts of those whom 
we have never seen and probably never shall see here 
below\ There are men whose lives are but a tissue of 
worldliness, whose souls seem incapable of any aspi- 
ration above the material things surrounding them, 
or the rationalism which they have adopted for their 
creed. Let us be gentle in our thoughts of them. 
There may be some among them on whose ears the 
voicQ^ of kindness has not fallen for years, on whose 
hearts its softening touch has not for many a long 
day rested, on whose souls its genial sun has ceased 
to shine — perhaps since the days, long past now, 
when a mother, now gone to her rest, smiled fondly 
on them. All chastening influences are from them, 
perhaps, withdrawn, and they stand alone in the 
w^orld, surrounded only by associations wholly in- 
capable of acting on their better nature. Possibly if 
they were but brought within the influence of the 
heaven-sent messenger we have been considering, 
those men whose lives are now a reproach to Chris- 
tianity might be awakened to better things, and, 
finally, be opened to the higher influences of 
religion. 

And, after all, if we reflect upon it, kindness is but 
the outcome and exemplar of the divine precept : 
''Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." There is 
nothing we personally so much appreciate as kind- 
ness. We like others to think of us kindly, to speak 
to us kindly, and to render us kindly actions and in a 
kindly manner. Now, as has been said above, we 
should know how to put ourselves in the place of 
others, and thus we should testify to them that kind- 
liness that we value so much ourselves. 



The Apostleship of Kindness. 485 

When our divine Lord came down upon earth, He 
came not only to save us by shedding His blood for 
us, but to teach us by His example how to cooperate 
with Him in extending the kingdom of His Father. 
And one of the most powerful means which He em- 
ployed for this purpose was kindness, gentleness, 
and forbearance. ''The goodness and kindness of 
God our Saviour appeared/' by which words we 
learn that kindness is not altogether synonymous 
with goodness, but, as it were, a luster, a bloom, an 
attraction superadded to it. 

We might regard this sweet reflection from the 
Heart of Jesus from many points of view, but it is 
especially under one aspect that we have been con- 
sidering it; namely, as a powerful weapon in our 
hands for the efficacious exercise of our apostolate. 
Kindly thoughts of others will be productive of 
prayer in their regard, at once fervent and affection- 
ate — prayer such as the loving Heart of Jesus will- 
ingly listens to; kindly words and deeds will draw 
souls to the love of Him whose spirit they behold so 
attractively reproduced in His members. As the 
wood-violets give forth their perfume from beneath 
the brushwood that conceals them from view, tell- 
ing us of their unseen nearness, so kindness reveals' 
to us the nearness of Jesus, the sweetness of whose 
spirit is thus breathed forth. 

Such is the kindness which is that great missioner 
sent by the Heart of Jesus to exercise an apostolate 
of love upon earth, and so to promote the glory of 
God and the salvation of souls. To exercise this 
apostolate will be the endeavor of all true lovers of 
the Divine Heart, and thus they will reproduce and 
perpetuate the life of the Heart of Jesus upon earth, 
so that it may be said of them : '*The goodness and 
kindness of God our Saviour has appeared'' in His 
members. — From the Voice of the Sacred Heart. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

IRetlections on 1bappme00» 

I. yTJT'HAT must we do to be happy? The 
^^^^^ thing is not hard. Much knowledge 
is not necessary for this, nor much talent, but only a 
real good will to do one's duty. Happiness, as far 
as it can exist here below, consists in peace, in the 
joy of a good conscience. Our conscience will be 
joyous and peaceful if it know not remorse; it will 
not know remorse if we are careful not to offend 
God. To fly from sin is, therefore, the chief source 
of happiness on earth. If our conscience is pure, our 
life will be happy. There are none happier than 
saints, for there are none more innocent. 

H. 'Tf I could do good around me,'' some one 
said, 'T feel that I should be happy." Yes, to do 
good and to do it, not through ostentation or self- 
interest, but for the love of God, is an infallible 
secret for finding happiness. And it is so easy to do 
good around one. Here is some poor person whom 
you can help ; an ignorant person whom you can in- 
struct ; some one in trouble whom you can cheer ; an 
accident or a mistake that you can set right, a good 
advice that you can give, a service that you can 
render, and a thousand things of the sort which oc- 
cur from morning till night. Remember those words 
of our divine Redeemer: ''Whoever shall give to 
drink to one of those little ones a cup of cold water 
only, in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you he 
shall not lose his reward." 

HI. There is no surer or easier means of main- 
taining an interior spirit, union with God, purity of 



Reflections on Happiness. 487 

conscience, and fervor — all of them things which 
contribute greatly to make the soul happy — no surer 
or easier means than to make it a rule to raise one's 
heart toward Jesus and Mary every half hour. A 
glance toward heaven, an aspiration, an act of love, 
is enough. In making this act, in casting this 
glance, we are forced to enter into ourselves ; and if 
anything troubles our peace of heart, or exposes us 
to fail in our duty, we are immediately warned of it. 
Does not the sick man take, every half hour or even 
every quarter of an hour, the medicine prescribed 
for him by the physician? Well, our poor soul is 
sick, and it needs at a fixed interval some moments 
of recollection, some short prayer to strengthen it 
again and to sustain it. Oh, what progress we should 
make in the ways of holiness and true happiness if 
we would adopt this practice ! 

IV. How can disquiet, that mortal enemy of 
happiness, find a place in our souls if we reflect well 
on what God is with regard to us? God sees all 
that happens to us : this is an absolutely certain truth. 
God loves us, and desires only our good : another 
truth which is not less certain. Therefore if sick- 
ness, poverty, adversity fall upon me, ought I not to 
say : 'T take refuge with a blind trustfulness in the 
bosom of my heavenly Father, for He sees my state 
and He loves me"? If envy and calumny pursue 
me, ought I not to say : ''Nothing of all this can hurt 
me, for God hears the unjust words spoken against 
me and He loves me"? Thus in all the crosses 
which come to us, if we have absolute confidence in 
God, none of these will be able to make us lose our 
peace of heart. 

V. It often happens that we bring troubles and 
annoyances upon ourselves, and fall into many faults, 
just through want of reflection. We decide some 



488 Reflections on Happiness. 

matter too quickly; we utter too quickly a bitter 
word ; we follow too quickly the counsel of passion 
and self-love; we open too quickly a certain book, 
and so forth. We ought to have asked ourselves 
first, is what I am going to do praiseworthy, useful, 
or even allowed ? What will be the consequences of 
it? Shall I repent of having done it? A moment 
of recollection, and above all an interior glance 
toward our good God, would be enough many times 
to open our eyes and would prevent acts that we re- 
gret. Let us learn to master our natural eagerness, 
and let us observe this rule faithfully if we would 
spare ourselves many little miseries and sometimes 
even very great ones. 

VL Let us always keep before our minds that 
word of Our Lord : ''With the same measure that 
you mete unto others it shall be meted unto you." 
How many salutary reflections this w^ill suggest to 
us ! Thus I can say to myself : if I am rude and hard 
toward my brethren, God will be harsh toward me ; 
if I let nothing pass with them, He will let nothing 
pass with me ; if I refuse to speak to them. He will 
not let His voice be heard in the depth of my heart, 
but will go away far from me ; if I do not pardon the 
real or fancied wrongs that have been done me, no 
more will He pardon me. Oh, what a fate I am pre- 
paring for myself in behaving as I do in my daily 
intercourse with those around me ! And if I find that 
my good God is not lavish of His graces toward me, 
and that He turns a deaf ear when I invoke Him, is 
it not because I am niggardly with others and let 
myself be entreated twenty times before doing them 
some little service? Come, my soul, let us begin to 
be wise and understand our own interests. Let us 
have a large, generous heart, full of goodness and 
thoughtfulness for others. All the good that we do 



Reflections on Happiness. 489 

for them will be done indirectly for ourselves. In 
making them happy we shall make sure of our own 
happmess. 

VII. How^ sweet and agreeable an occupation it 
is to give pleasure to those around us ! It is quite 
natural among Christians, but it becomes almost a 
duty among the members of a family or a commu- 
nity, especially toward persons whom age or rank 
places above us. And, to give pleasure, what is ne- 
cessary? Things the most insignificant, provided 
they be accompanied by amiable manners ; what is 
necessary, above all, is to have habitually a smile on 
our lips. Oh ! who can tell the power of a smile ? 
For ourselves, it is the guardian of kindness, pa- 
tience, tolerance, all the virtues that we have occa- 
sion to exercise in our relations with our neighbor. 
There is in fact no danger of our being rude or 
severe as long as a smile rests on our lips. For 
others, it is a source of contentment, joy, satisfac- 
tion, and encouragement. Without even uttering a 
single word we put those around us at their ease ; we 
inspire them with a sweet confidence, if we approach 
them with a smile. Perhaps you will object that 
you can not smile, that you are naturally serious or 
even severe. Undeceive yourself : with real good 
will you will acquire this empire over yourself, you 
will soon do by custom what you at first did by con- 
straint; and the interior joy that you taste will rec- 
ompense you superabundantly for your trouble and 
your efforts. 

''There are none so happy in this world as those 
who have tranquillity of soul in the midst of the 
troubles of life," says the venerable Cure d'Ars. 
'They taste the joy of the children of God. All pains 
are sweet when we suffer In union with Our Lord. 
To suffer — what matter? — it is only a moment. If 



490 Rejections on Happiness. 

we could go and spend eight days in heaven, we 
should understand the worth of this moment of suf- 
fering. We should find no cross heavy enough, no 
tcial sufficiently bitter.'' 

VIII. A great secret for preserving peace of 
heart is to do nothing with over-eagerness, but to 
act always calmly, without trouble or disquiet. We 
are not asked to do much but to do well. At the Last 
Day God will not examine if we have performed a 
multitude of works, but if we have sanctified our 
souls in doing them. Now the means of sanctifying 
ourselves is to do everything for God and to do per- 
fectly whatever we have to do. The works that have 
as their motive vanity or selfishness make us neither 
better nor happier, and we shall receive no reward 
for them. 

IX. 'T feel happy," said a holy person, "in pro- 
portion as I do my actions well." Let us meditate an 
instant on this luminous saying. To do well what one 
has to do — here again is the secret of being happy. 
Every man, then, can be happy ; and, if we have not 
been happy hitherto, it is because we have not put 
this lesson into practice. But what is necessary for 
this? Oh, very little. To do every action, as we 
have already said, with a view of pleasing God ; to 
do every action in the manner that God commands, 
either through Himself or through those who hold 
His place in our regard ; to do every action as if we 
had nothing else to do but this, and as if we were to 
die after having aone it.* 

*Extracts from The Art of Being Happy, a brochure 
translated from the French by the Rev. Matthew Russell, 
SJ. 



CHAPTER XLVL 

XLbc Sweetne00 ot tbe Ibeatt ot ^cme 
in 1bl0 /nbanner ot Zcacbim. 

'TT'mong all the virtues that Our Lord held 
(vA-'-. forth while upon earth, and of which He 
gave us at the same time the precept and example, 
there is one that He recommended most particularly 
to His disciples; namely, charity. Charity is the 
most universal virtue : it takes the place of all the 
others, supposes them and includes them all ; 
it is the most efficacious of all virtues, it alone 
justifies one before God. One can have faith with- 
out being righteous, for the demons believe, and 
tremble ; sinners have often clung to hope, yet for 
that were not reconciled to God. 

Charity is the bond of hearts. A soul entirely be- 
longing to God would be no longer dry and contrac- 
ted by the inequalities of self-love ; loving only for 
God, it would love like God with an admirable love, 
for God is love, as St. John has said. x\ccording to 
His divine promise His ''bowels of compassion" 
were always an inexhaustible source of living water. 
Love should bear all, suffer all things, hope all for 
one's neighbor ; love should surmount all difficulties ; 
from the depths of the heart it should shed itself 
through all the senses ; it should be moved to pity 
for the afflictions of others, and count its own as 
nothing; it should console, it should compassionate, 
it should accommodate itself to others, making itself 
little to the little ones, and becoming great with the 
great; it should weep with those who weep, and 
rejoice through condescension with those who re- 



492 The Sweetness of the Heart of Jesus, 

joice ; it should be all to all, not with a forced ap- 
pearance and dry demonstrations, but through the 
overflowing of the heart, in which charity should be 
a living source of all the tenderest and strongest 
sentiments. 

What could be more touching than the sweetness 
and patience with which the divine Saviour in- 
structed His disciples ? He did not dissimulate 
but taught them all truth with a goodness quite as- 
tonishing to us. He taught them not to cling to 
Him except through supernatural motives, not to 
expect from His Heart any human advantage, and 
to count only upon the goods of heaven. What 
must not Jesus have suffered from those minds, so 
gross and so little acquainted with spiritual things ! 
Nevertheless, He always treated them with sweet- 
ness and kindness, never becoming discouraged be- 
cause He could not succeed in overcoming their 
prejudices. He knew that this moment would ar- 
rive, and He awaited it patiently. He did not spare 
Himself in their instruction, although they drew no 
profit from His lessons, and although He foresaw 
that they would be unproductive. He explained to 
them particularly the meaning of the parables that 
He used in speaking to the people ; and if He some- 
times reproached them for their want of understand- 
ing it was not to wound them nor to show them 
that He was shocked on account of it, but to cause 
them to elevate their minds and render them more 
attentive. His condescension in their regard was 
extreme ; and it is inconceivable to us when we 
think of the master that He was, and with what dis- 
ciples He had to deal. How greatly He was obliged 
to humble Himself to place Himself on their level ! 
How many useless or indiscreet questions He was 
obliged to listen to on their part ! What manage- 



The Sweetness of the Heart of Jesus. 493 

ment not to offend or discourage them ! What per- 
severance to repeat ceaselessly the same things, 
which many times they understood no better the last 
time than the first ! 

Those charged with the instruction of others are 
so much the more exposed to anger and discourage- 
ment as they are themselves the more intelligent and 
their pupils the more dull of comprehension. We 
may, then, judge something of the ineffable indul- 
gence of the Heart of Jesus, who, possessing all the 
treasures of divine science, was obliged to converse 
with men entirely material, and without understand- 
ing; yet nevertheless He never repulsed them, and 
never neglected any occasion of raising their minds 
to the things of God. He only considered Himself 
more obliged to communicate to them greater light 
and more abundant graces ; He could easily have 
disabused them of their prejudices, enlightened their 
minds and have given them understanding of the 
Holy Scriptures, • but the time had not yet come ; 
He awaited submissively the will of His Father, 
and expressed no eagerness to see it sooner executed. 

There is no virtue more necessary to those who 
teach others than sweetness. They are obliged to 
combat the defects of mind and character and the 
evil dispositions of those to whom they speak, and 
if they exhibit any degree of ill-humor, impatience, 
haughtiness, or imperiousness, it will be prejudicial 
to them and their instructions ; it will alienate the 
minds of the pupils ; it will be revolting to them 
and they will be disgusted. Let them recall the ex- 
ample of Jesus, how He proportioned His instruc- 
tions to the capacity of each, how He enlightened 
them insensibly and by degrees, always seizing the 
most favorable moment, covering and smoothing 
over the difficulties that mJght cause those who lis- 



494 The Sweetness of the Heart of Jesus. 

tened to turn away. St. Peter has st}'led His con- 
duct toward men midtiformis, because it assumed a 
thousand forms in His manner of bestowing His 
graces ; and as Wisdom informs us that each found 
in the manna the particular flavor that he reHshed, 
so Jesus varied His instructions according to their 
several necessities. The nourishment is propor- 
tioned to each soul according to its hunger and pres- 
ent necessity. Has He not told us that He knows 
us each by name? His direction then is different 
for soft and weak natures than for formed and firm 
characters ; different for the perfect than for those 
who are not yet perfect : to each He gives what is 
best for him with tender and marvelous goodness. 

''For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh," and not alone in the words that it says, 
but yet more in the manner which accompanies 
them. A humble teacher may teach great things, 
but he teaches them with humility ; there is nothing 
in his manner nor language that pride or self-suf- 
ficiency could resent; he understands how to bring 
himself to the level of those to whom he speaks, and 
to adapt himself to their limited intelligence. If he 
gives weight and authority to his words, it is not 
that he may be more esteemed himself, but for the 
honor of His name for whom he speaks, and to 
make deeper impression upon minds. 

Such was our divine Master in His teaching; 
there was no affectation in His discourses, no ap- 
pearance of eloquence, but a touching and charming 
simplicity. It would be impossible to express divine 
and sublime things in a more simple manner. His 
expressions, without being common, had nothing 
therein above the comprehension of the most medi- 
ocre minds ; yet nevertheless they contained such 
profound meaning that the greatest geniuses com- 



The Szveeiness of the Heart of Jesus. 495 

prehended them only imperfectly. He borrowed 
from the most ordinary objects the comparisons of 
which He made use, and His parables contained 
nothing that was not simple and familiar. It was 
a heart that spoke to heart, and w^hich, full of what 
it said, caused the same to pass into the hearts of 
those who listened. Read His conversation with 
the Samaritan woman ; see how^ He instructed, 
touched, and gained her little by little, and led her 
by degrees to recognize in Him the Messias. This 
was undoubtedly the work of His grace, but His 
words were His instrument and He adapted them to 
His secret actions. 

How pleasant to us is the thought that Jesus has 
exercised, in our regard, and without exception, all 
the works of mercy ! Let us beg this divine Master 
to teach us how to exercise some in regard to our 
neighbor, so that having walked in His footsteps in 
the practice of these virtues with which His heart 
w^as filled we may obtain from Him on that day of 
final consummation the special recompense con- 
tained in this sacred promise : ''Blessed are the mer- 
ciful, for they shall obtain mercy !" 

Interior Christians, charged with the instruction 
and guidance of others, according to the example 
and lessons, of the Heart of Jesus, speak with hu- 
mility, because they speak not from themselves. 
They enlighten the mind, but they touch the heart 
more directly ; they warm it, penetrate it, and fill it 
Avith a divine unction. 

They are simple, easy, familiar ; yet they combine 
a majesty with their simplicity that attracts and 
charms. Their persuasive power proceeds from 
the grace that inspires and directs them. Charity is 
patient, it is not troubled at the crosses of life and 
the defects of others ; for charity consists in the 



40 The Sweetness of the Heart of Jesus. 

love of God, and the love of God acquiesces in the 
good pleasure of God, and sees the holy will of God 
in all things. 

''Resist faithfully your impatience," says St. 
Francis de Sales, ''by practicing with reason, and 
even against reason, a holy affability and sweetness 
toward all and above all toward those who cause 
you annoyance." "Watch over yourself that you 
become not troubled nor impatient on account of the 
defects of others," says St. Bernard. 

Patience does not render one blind nor insensible ; 
it perceives the imperfections of others and suffers 
accordingly ; and if one would follow the dictates of 
nature he would exclaim against them. But in the 
presence of God he represses all these sallies of na- 
ture, and avoids any sign of impatience or bitterness 
upon any occasion when the heart is wounded or 
self-love offended ; he measures his words, that they 
may give token of no contempt or offence, even 
toward those with whom he has reason to be dis- 
pleased. He preserves on every occasion a civil, 
modest, and affable manner ; he makes use of the 
greatest condescension in favor of those persons 
who, through their imperfection and weakness, are 
apt to inspire others with dislike or disgust. Can 
there be in the eyes of God a more beautiful sacri- 
fice or a more perfect mortification than this?* 

*From The Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by 
Rev. F. Huguet. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 
Zbc pertection ot tbe IRcligione ^eacber, 

'T^ROFESSED Religious who are called to teach 
*-■— have their appointment ''by divine grace/' It 
is their privilege, and, if rightly taken hold of, it will 
be their constant joy to cooperate with God in His 
great work of accomplishing and perfecting the 
designs of creation. The renewal of the world, its 
conservation in a healthy spirit, means nothing else 
than a continuous creation through the action of the 
Divine Spirit. ''Emitte Spirittim Ttium et creabiin- 
tiir, et renovabis faciem terrce/' This is eminently 
true of education, which is the training unto perfec- 
tion of the highest type of creation — man. 

But to cooperate rightly with God in this great 
work, the teacher requires special qualifications. 
These are, indeed, guaranteed to the members of 
the teaching orders — thanks to God's wondrous 
goodness — in the fact that He has called them to 
this task. Religious teachers may not always be 
conscious of the possession or operation of such 
qualities, because these were given them in the man- 
ner of a germ or seed, to be developed and cultivated 
in the soil of a good and faithful heart ; and as it is 
often difficult to tell what sort of fruit a small seed 
may bring forth, so a teacher may have no clear 
conception of what he or she can do, or rather what 
God may do in using them as instruments of edu- 
cation. Nor is it necessary. Does the lily grow less 
fair because it is unconscious of its growth? In 
truth, it is very much better for all of us that we 
should not trouble ourselves about our talents in 



h 



498 The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 

the way of rating them. What we have to do is to 
use them, and their use begins by keeping them, Hke 
fruitful seed, under ground for a while (humility), 
and to gather in this condition a certain amount of 
heat (fervor) so that the seed ma^ break (mortifica- 
tion) ; and then the little germ, whatever its ultimate 
productiveness, will of itself struggle through the 
hard crust of the earth to the light. And if after 
that it is kept under proper shelter, within the rays 
of the divine Sun which warms it, and drinks in the 
waters of divine grace which bedew it, and yields 
to the care of the gardener appointed by God to tie 
and to steady it, giving it a rule lest it grow crooked, 
and to prune it, sometimes even unto tears, lest it 
spread itself unduly — then that sprout of talent will 
bring flowers, and in its season fruits with which we 
may safely feed the little ones whom God intrusts 
to us for education. 

Safely feed the little ones ! We may ; and yet in 
our very good-heartedness, which is sometimes a 
weakness, we may overfeed them or feed them at the 
wrong time, or feed them with a fruit too ripe or 
raw, or feed them in a manner too hasty, or in mor- 
sels too big for the little throats. In short, our feed- 
ing, however good the fruit of our gifts of mind, 
instead of preserving life, will produce illness, pain, 
mental dyspepsia, cholera, choking, death of mind 
and heart ; and we who might have prevented it will 
be answerable for the results. 

It is on this point, in the long line of a teacher's 
qualifications, that I intend chiefly to dwell in these 
pages, after briefly stating, for the sake of logical 
coherence, what every one knows to be the principal 
requisites, natural, intellectual, and moral, for all 
those who are called to the very important office of 
educating the young. 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 499 

I. (i) Among what are termed natural or physi- 
cal qualifications, health is obviously counted, inas- 
much as it implies the possession of habits of life 
which exclude a warping of the judgment and tem- 
per of the teacher (mens sana in cor pore sano), or- 
the arousing of certain repugnances and prejudices 
which offend the sensibilities of the pupil. How- 
ever, we know that defects of the body can often be 
compensated for by extraordinary gifts of soul. 
Among the most efficient educators have been those 
who were habitually under the stress of physical 
suffering. 

(2) Next to health come (in the same natural or- 
der) an instinct of propriety, (3) a sense of order, 
(4) simplicity of manner. The last two are an 
ordinary result of the spirit of holy poverty and 
an abiding consciousness of the presence of God. I 
say of holy poverty, because that is quite compatible 
w4th the neatness and cleanliness w^hich betoken a 
regard for our surroundings. "We are to form the 
pupils to habits of simplicity, order, economy, and 
a taste for the useful," writes the Venerable Madame 
Barat, one of the most enlightened educators of the 
nineteenth century, and of these things we must 
give the example. These are external qualifications. 

There are likewise internal gifts of the nat- 
ural order requisite for the successful work of 
education : 

(i) Ordinary insight or penetration into human 
nature, and the tact which accompanies that gift ; 

(2) the ability to communicate our thoughts; 

(3) sufficient inventive power (imagination) to 
present knowledge in an interesting form, and elicit 
attention; (4) the natural power of enforcing dis- 
cipHne; (5) pleasant manner. 

Somehow sanctity supplies all these ; but in pro- 



500 The Perfection of the Religions Teacher. 

portion as sanctity is lacking they must be supplied 
from the natural order. 

II. In the intellectual order the teacher requires : 
(i) Knowledge of the branches or topics to be 
taught, and of methods, particularly in certain special 
branches. The present training colleges lay consid- 
erable stress on this, and teach, under the head 
of ''theory and practice of education," psychology, 
logic, ethics, the art of teaching, the history of 
education, methods for special topics, school hy- 
giene, school problems, criticism, elocution."^ I 
mention these merely under the head of knowledge 
because of the popular demand, and because simi- 
lar courses have been adopted by some of the 
teaching orders in England, notably in the Normal 
Training School of the Sisters of the Holy 
Child. 

(2) The habit (natural or through training by 
mathematics, logic, etc.) of consecutive and logical 
thinking. This secures the method which develops 
by means of synthesis and analysis. 

III. A third category of qualifications belongs 
to the moral order. For religious teachers they 
may be summed up in the faithful observance 
of the spirit and letter of the Rules of their 
institute. 

This qualification is decidedly of the highest im- 
portance, since it supplies both knowledge and 
method, because — 

(i) Nearness to God opens all the sources of 
wisdom and knowledge.f 

^Cambridge Course, 1899. 

tSt. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, St. Philip Benizi, Suarez, 
and other intellectual giants have called the crucifix their 
book; and we know what that book taught them even of 
human learning. 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 501 

(2) Because nearness to God puts us in the right 
attitude toward the child; it gives us supernatural 
love, which inspires the best method for attracting 
and teaching it. 

Such are in outline the qualifications which we 
must demand of the Christian educator, of whom 
the true Religious, apart from the well-informed 
parent, is the best type. If I were to set aside all 
didactic forms and put the whole matter in a simpler 
mold, omitting all that we possess in the principles 
of our faith, coupled with the practice of religious 
profession, and in. the guidance and protection ac- 
corded us by the teaching institute of which we are 
members, I would say that our efforts should lay 
stress on the perfecting of two virtues, which will 
render our work of education not only eminently 
satisfactory from the religious point of view, but 
infinitely superior to any training that the best efforts 
of pedagogical science and art can attain in all the 
different orders of study, intellectual or social. The 
two virtues to which I refer are courage and justice. 
They are the two main hinges on which swings the 
gate of the religious educator's efficiency, the gate 
which opens the way for the pupil to that sphere 
of the child's future usefulness which the education 
in the schools over which Religious preside was in- 
tended to secure. If we desire confirmation of this 
thought we shall find it in the teaching of the Angel 
of the Schools, which presents a singular harmony 
with the educational maxims to be gleaned in general 
from the lives of the founders of the Orders that 
have made the training of the young their special 
object. Courage (fortitude), one of the essential 
requisites in the character of the Christian educator, 
is, according to the Angelic Doctor, a virtue which 
restrains man within the bounds of right reason, 



502 The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 

while urging him to ^overcome the obstacles opposed 
to reason or to its legitimate use."^ 

There are two ways in which this virtue manifests 
itself : 

( I ) In sustaining with equanimity and good-will 
the hardships imposed upon us by our condition of 
life; (2) in facing deliberately new conditions in- 
volving hardships and dangers. 

The habit of perseverance is the result and per- 
fection of courage.f 

It is this virtue of fortitude which strikes us so 
predominantly in the lives of those saintly and gen- 
erous pioneers who came to the New World to teach 
the rudiments of Christian faith and civilization to 
the natives and to the neglected children of the early 
rude settlers. These noble Religious never spoke of 
success, yet it is to their seemingly slow progress 
that we owe the most valuable results of subsequent 
periods in our history of Christian education. The 
saintly Madame Duchesne used to say : ''Personally 
I have never succeeded, but God gives me grace to 
rejoice in the success of others.'' Yet it was to her 
that Madame Barat felt impelled to write (Feb- 
ruary 16, 1852) : ''Oh, if we had many souls as 
zealous and as detached as those who have invaded 
your part of the world, foundations would he easy. 
Pray, then, dear and good Mother, urgently and fer- 
vently that our divine Master may consider the needs 
of the souls we ought to save. He will grant the 
prayers of my dear old daughter who has so well 

"^Summc 11. 23e, qu. 123, art. i. — Cf. Le Pretre Educateur, 
Lecuyer, pp. 4 ff. 

jCf. I Cor. xiii. 7, where St. Paul shows the twofold 
manifestation of courage to be a characteristic of the 
fundamental virtue of charity — ''caritas omnia suifert" 
— that is, bears in silence ; and "omnia sustinef — that is, 
sustains, supports. 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 503 

understood the value of souls, and who never stopped 
at any obstacle when Jesus called upon her to help 
them."^^ 

But this virtue of courage or fortitude, which we 
are to cultivate in ourselves as Christian educators, 
must likewise be drawn forth and developed in the 
child. I say drawn forth and developed, because its 
germ resides in the soul of the child. There is in 
every human being a physical and moral force which, 
though latent in early years, is capable of being culti- 
vated so as to produce this Christian courage which 
is the secret of self-denial, of charity, of zeal, even 
unto martyrdom, for the salvation of souls. You 
will find this germ-virtue in the child's soul mani- 
festing itself in three centers of action — intellect, 
heart, and will. In every child this moral force dom- 
inates in one or other of these faculties, and the 
secret of our gaining control of the child consists 
in finding the dominant faculty and developing and 
utilizing it. 

The teacher must love the child and gain its 
afifection in order to succeed in training it properly. 
But the difficulty is often how to draw out its 
afifection ; for we must not forget that love here 
spoken of is not a sentiment, not an attachment 
w^hich is created by favors, caresses, or flattery. 
No ; there are, it is true, children whom we thus 
bring to follow us by simply appealing to their 
affectionate disposition ; but there are others in 
whom intelligence predominates over affection ; and 
others in whom the will (self-will) predominates 
over both. 

To the child that has heart, whose sympathies are 
strong and quickly rise to the surface, the educator 
need give comparatively Httle special attention, 
"^Life, Vol. II., p. 272. 



504 The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 

Such a child will follow its teacher spontaneously, 
and it will do whatever is prescribed or even sug- 
gested by a superior who can command respect by 
his or her personal conduct as a Religious. Indeed, 
it is generally to the advantage of such a child if it 
be little noticed by the teacher, except in so far as 
the common discipline or exceptional sensitiveness, 
showing the need of occasional encouragement, may 
demand. What the child of heart needs most is the 
fostering of independence of character ; and with this 
end in view it must become accustomed to stand 
alone; thus it is brought gradually to develop the 
element of courage latent in its soul. The young 
tree shaken by the rude winds and stripped of its 
leaves may look quite forlorn at times, and provoke 
the pity of the gardener ; but the gardener, too, has 
an occasion here for the exercise of courage, by 
withholding the expression of sympathy, mindful 
only of the fact that the tree much shaken by the 
winds lays a stronger hold on the soil, provided the 
winds are not without intermission and do not come 
always from the same quarter. The natural craving 
for the esthetic, the poetic, and sentimental, which 
manifests itself in particular friendships, in letter- 
writing, and even in pious devotions, is to be curbed 
in all children of exceptionally big-hearted disposi- 
tion, as a danger which saps that portion of the 
material of the soul from which character is to be 
built for their future safeguard through life. Even 
when it happens that, in the endeavor to repress this 
noxious tendency, we seem to wound the sensitive- 
ness of the child, so that it droops in apparent help- 
lessness, let us remember the nature of the southern 
mimosa. The little sensitive plant shrinks and col- 
lapses at the touch of the hand as though withered 
and broken forever; yet give it a little time and 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 505 

sunshine and it rises up gradually, showing no traces 
of its former weakness. Hence it is that the wisest 
instructors, especially in the case of girls, warn the 
teacher against an excessive cultivation of sentiment 
among children at the expense of solid principles. 
However, while the proverb, ''Trop de siicre dans la 
jeimesse, mauvaises dents dans la z'ieillesse/' applies 
here, as well as in the physical training of children, 
it ought to be remembered that while children of 
large sympathies are quite common in some, espe- 
cially southern, countries, they are not so many in 
America ; and they are becoming fewer day by day 
amid the materialistic tendency of modern life, which 
is calculated to dry up the sentimental element and 
to turn it into self-love of some other kind. 

A second class of children referred to are those 
in whom the desire to know and the capacity to 
understand predominate over the qualities of the 
heart or the will. Such children must be reached 
through their minds. Although the teacher can fully 
control the child only by the attraction of the heart, 
yet it is necessary first to find and to open the way 
to the heart. In the predominantly intelligent child 
this is done by making it understand its deficiency. 
Seeing and reflecting to some extent upon its want, 
there arises in the young soul a longing for that 
w^hich it lacks, to fill the void recognized in its 
nature. This longing awakens the operation of the 
heart, and gives the educator an opportunity to pre- 
sent an attraction by which the child can be led 
forward and drawn upward. 

It w^ould, therefore, be an error to appeal directly 
to the sentiment of affection in a child of this dispo- 
sition before we have made it understand the quality 
of its weakness and the value of that which it lacks. 
This understanding on the part of the child is mostly 



5o6 The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 

brought about by a judicious measure of humilia- 
tions in opposition to the things on which the child 
naturally prides itself. But such humiliations must 
not be imposed ; they must be made to meet the child 
spontaneously, must come upon it gradually in the 
course of its tasks, and the ingenious teacher will 
readily find means to let the young talent try its 
strength upon problems just beyond its reach, look- 
ing quietly on, as if to say, After all, you are not 
so smart, my child, as one might expect. Thus the 
child is made to see in itself the cause of its humilia- 
tion, instead of inwardly resenting it as an act which 
the teacher inflicts upon it as a penalty for, or a 
safeguard against, pride. 

But here, too, nothing is so much to be recom- 
mended as slow proceeding, waiting and watching 
until the child is ready to profit by the operation 
of our method. 'Tf you make fire with green wood 
you will get more smoke than heat." 

Finally, we come to the child in whom the will- 
power predominates. It must be ruled and cor- 
rected by law, by timely command, by regular appli- 
cation to work. Yet let me say at once that this 
method must not in any way be understood to 
weaken the principle that ''a good teacher rules by 
influence rather than by coercive restriction.'' The 
habit of constantly impressing and enforcing orders 
by the use of reproving words is a sure way to fail 
in obtaining respect for either the law or the teacher ; 
and oft-repeated correction of this kind seriously 
injures the child's disposition. Let the teacher who 
finds that he or she has to control such children 
watch their propensities and ebullitions of self-will 
for some time before appearing to notice and there- 
fore to punish them, unless there is question of gross 
faults which force themselves on our attention. 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 507 

Then, having seen what needs correction, let the 
announcement be made, as coming from a superior 
authority, of certain rules of conduct to be observed 
in the class under proportionate penalty. These rules 
should, it must be observed, be but few, and such as 
can readily be observed under ordinary circum- 
stances. If they be sufficiently definite to cover the 
more common and disturbing breaches of discipline, 
it will give the teacher an excuse to ignore lesser 
faults and to use discretion at times toward indul- 
gence, until the general improved tone of discipline 
in the class allows a further refining. There is harm 
in making rules which the teacher foresees, or ought 
to foresee, will not or can not be observed. Assum- 
ing that a good, well-considered set of rules is made, 
the children will, of course, at once test its strength 
by violating it. The teacher is sorry and remains 
quite amiable ; but there is the inexorable law with 
its penalty, w^hich is to blame for all the poutings 
and tears that follow. Gradually the child, finding 
that it has to fear only the unyielding law, and not 
the teacher, who sympathizes with the young, delin- 
quent while quietly urging obedience and, by it, an 
avoidance of the painful consequences of violating 
the rules, begins to observe the latter. Thus 
the same force which leads the child to obedience 
leads it also to esteem for the teacher, and the 
element of courage is developed through the 
will, which turns in the direction of order and 
docility. 

There is one exception to this method of correc- 
tion in which the educator maintains a constantly 
pleasant manner whilst appealing to the inexorable 
demand of the law of order. This exception is the 
case of any open violation of the reverence due to 
God, or of holy things which are understood to in- 



5o8 The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 

volve directly His honor. A teacher who can make 
upon the child the impression that he or she con- 
dones everything except offenses against God, at 
once elevates the child to a higher plane of view, 
and secures absolute authority over the pupil. In 
all matters causing faults against order, propriety, 
application to scholastic tasks, etc., the child encoun- 
ters a more or less definitely foreseen penalty in- 
flicted by the existing rules, which process gradually 
forces upon the young mind the recognition of the 
eternal order of things, and instinctively develops 
convictions regarding the intrinsic value of law. In 
these cases the teacher has hardly to use any 
words. But it is different when there is question of 
the honor due to God, and of sin ; then it is well that 
the child should meet the well-governed but evident 
indignation of the teacher. For in doing so it will 
recognize in the teacher the true and consistent 
representative of God, a sentiment which elevates 
the dignity of the teacher, and supplies those forces 
for governing the child that may otherwise be lack- 
ing, either by reason of the absence of certain per- 
sonal qualities in the teacher or by reason of circum- 
stances in which it is particularly difficult to con- 
trol the child. 

Yet, whatever necessity there may be for applying 
correction, whether in matters of mere deportment 
and application, or in the more serious cases of sin, 
the double rule of moderation and of seeking if pos- 
sible a permanent remedy which goes to the core of 
the evil holds good throughout the educational 
process. Constantly rehearsed correction of faults 
is never, on the whole, successful. Take a shrub in 
your garden, some root-branch of which bends 
across the path. Every time you pass by you beat 
it aside or you lift it up; but it comes down each 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher, 509 

time, and tires and irritates you in the constant effort 
to avoid its straggling annoyance. Is there no 
other way ? Yes ; take a string, tie it around the 
bush to uphold the forward branch; shortly the 
cells in the lower part of the stem contract and ac- 
commodate themselves to . the forced position, and 
by degrees growing sJ;ronger they will hold the 
branch in place, so that when the string is removed 
the shrub is orderly by its own developed strength. 
Of course you must measure your string and note 
the quality ; not bind too tight lest the branch break, 
nor use a string too w^eak lest it snap and the re- 
laxed branch hurt some passer-by. 

We have seen that the quality of courage essential 
in a good teacher is developed in the pupil by bring- 
ing under control the heart, the mind, and the will — 
the operation of the threefold center of action. To 
do this effectually it is necessary not only that the 
teacher ascertain the disposition or peculiar charac- 
ter of the child, but also that she should gauge the 
limits of its capacity in the threefold direction be- 
fore indicated. This demands in the teacher the vir- 
tue of justice, so as to form a proper estimate of 
what the child can do, and also to act out the senti- 
ments which that estimate inspires. Fortitude or 
courage when not balanced by justice becomes a 
danger and a temptation, inasmuch as it yields to im- 
pulses of zeal, of discouragement after failure, of 
haphazard ventures and foolhardy undertakings, 
which destroy the previous efforts of better-minded 
educators. 

Justice, as defined by the scholastics, is the con- 
sistent or sustained determination to render to 
every one his proper rights. Every one — that is to 
say, first to God ; then to those who directly repre- 
sent His claims in the Church; next, to those who 



510 The Perfection of the Religions Teacher. 

represent the civil and social order; and finally, to 
our fellow-men, the images of God. 

It is important that we recognize the fact that, in 
the educational process, justice as a supernatural 
virtue is for the most part to be built upon justice 
as a natural virtue. And this gives value to the 
study of the classics. The pupil learns to recognize 
that there is such a thing as natural virtue, and to 
look for it, and respect it in those who are not of 
the household of the faith. Furthermore, it will es- 
cape that insidious view so dangerous in practice, 
though defensible in theory, namely, that, because 
faith furnishes an antidote to the malice of sin, 
therefore Catholics are excusable for neglecting the 
external virtues of which non-Catholics, who are, 
often falsely, supposed to polish only the outside of 
the platter, are as a rule more careful. The child 
will learn that truthfulness, charity, purity, are vir- 
tues which may be cultivated by those who are not 
so fortunate as to be in the fold of Christ, and that 
these virtues dispose them for the grace of faith : 
and the fact that these gifts are infinitely ennobled 
by baptism does not establish a claim of superior 
merit, but only one of deeper gratitude, together 
with the graver duty of guarding the treasure with 
more fidelity. On the other hand, the child will 
also be made aware of the fact that the passions are 
scars and weaknesses w^hich result from original 
sin, and that religious training and the grace of 
faith do not so much eradicate the passions, as rather 
teach us how to subdue them. 

Justice likewise requires that the teacher keep the 
pupil alive to a proper estimate of the scientific 
studies for which the young mind may feel an at- 
traction, or possess special aptitude. The sciences 
are disciplines. They aid us in the discovery of 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 511 

truth ; but it must not be forgotten that they always 
rest upon falHble senses and fallible reason. They 
can not by their demonstrative power supersede the 
facts of revelation, for the truth of which God's 
testimony vouches, even when we do not understand 
them. Pious legends are not, of course, facts of reve- 
lation ; though it must be noted that the temper of 
mind which easily rejects or treats with disrespect 
the reputed manifestations in the supernatural order 
which command the respect of good and intelligent 
persons of any age or country is not a healthy one. 
Nevertheless, it is a singular fact, due probably to 
the^proneness toward wrong ingrafted in human na- 
ture by original sin, that the mind will accept as 
demonstrated any plausible scientific hypothesis, 
while it rejects divine truths which rest upon much 
superior motives of credibility. This tendency of 
the naturally scientific mind toward skepticism needs 
to be guarded against and counteracted in early 
life, when the rudiments of the sciences are being 
taught ; and it is done by emphasizing the difference 
between supernatural and natural causes and effects. 

The principle of justice must likewise be steadily 
kept sight of in cases w^here the teacher is bound to 
punish the pupil. The minister of penalty must 
ever preserve the dignity and impartiality of an in- 
strument of the Eternal Lawgiver. Thus the ex- 
ercise of this virtue forestalls all morbid exaggera- 
tion, all manifestation of caprice, of weakness in 
temperament, or of preferences based on individual 
likes and dislikes. 

It may be asked : how^ can a teacher cast off the 
natural likes or dislikes called forth by the disposi- 
tion of the children ? The answer is that, while it is 
impossible to divest one's self of the natural impres- 
sion which attractive qualities in the child or their 



512 The Perfection of the Religious Teacher, 

contraries inspire, we are not forced to manifest or 
act upon such impressions ; nay, we are bound, in 
justice to our responsibility as educators, to counter- 
act the dislikes we may feel toward a child, and 
even more the natural attraction, especially when it 
is based mainly upon the impression of the senses. 
The teacher must keep an eye on the useful rather 
than the beautiful qualities of the child's nature. 
We may not like iodine in some of its forms, exhibit- 
ing ugly grayish color and a pungent repulsive 
odor ; but we know its salutary uses as a medicine, 
and prefer it so, rather than in the form of the bril- 
liant and beautiful purple vapors w^hich it assumes 
when heated in a retort. The child's unattractive 
qualities are the ones that the educator must work 
upon ; they are the steps toward its reform and ulti- 
mate salvation ; in time we may be able to spiritual- 
ize these homely forms, w^hen they will rise and take 
on the brilliant beauty of which they are capable un- 
der the influence of supernatural fervor. Thus act- 
ing from principle and not upon feelings, the 
teacher personally cultivates the virtues of disin- 
terestedness, self-denial, and wisdom, which supply 
to the soul everything needful for the perfect accom- 
plishment of a teacher's important work; for wis- 
dom, says the sacred writer (Wis. x. lo), leads 
those that are just through the right ways, and 
shows them the kingdom of God, and gives them 
the knowledge of the holy things, and makes 
them honorable in their labors, and completes 
all their works for them. ''Justum deduxit Domi- 
nus per vias reef as, et ostendit illi regmtm Dei, 
ef dedit illi scientiam sanctorum, et honestavit ilhtm 
in laboribus, et complevit labores illins!' 

There can indeed be no reason for discouragement 
in the seemingly toilsome work of the religious 



The Perfection of the Religious Teacher, 513 

teacher if the rule of justice, which is the rule of the 
religious life, be kept before the mind. The child 
will pattern itself after the living model before it, 
and will reflect the spirit and the action of the 
teacher. To be successful educators we have to 
strive to express in our conduct what we would 
teach to the child : ''Qui aiitem fecerit et docuerit, 
hie magniis vocabitur'' (Matt. v. 19). That de- 
mands, as we have seen, courage regulated by jus- 
tice ; but it also means assured vict-ory in the domain 
of true knowledge, true wisdom, which is the great- 
est power on earth. ''Et certamen forte dedit illi 
lit vineeret, et seiret quoniam omnium potentior est 
sapientia" (Wis. x. 12). In other words, if the 
vocation of the religious teacher is a call to labor 
and self-denial, it is also a call to the noblest victory ; 
for He that bade us follow Him in this work "gave 
a strong conflict" that we "might overcome, and 
know that wisdom is mightier than all.'' And if our 
confidence were nevertheless to fail us in the midst 
of the struggle, we need but remember that our 
teacher's chair is the footstool that leads to the "Seat 
of Wisdom," our blessed Lady, whom the language 
of the Church identifies with the Wisdom of Holy 
Writ. "Venite iilii/' she whispers; "audite me, 
timorern Domini docebo vos'' (Ps. xxxiii. 12). She 
herself is the model of the perfect religious educator, 
and the qualities which I have set forth as requisite 
in the latter are beautifully portrayed in the antiphon 
with which the Church intones the canticle of the 
Magnificat on Our Lady's feast : "Virgo pruden- 
tissima, quo progrederis? quasi aurora valde rutilans. 
Tota formosa et suavis es, pidchra ut lima, electa 
tit sol — (terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata).'' 

With the inspired seer we ask the Virgin Mother 
of Christ what, in her most perfect foresight (Pru- 



514 The Perfection of the Religious Teacher. 

dentissima) , she points ont as the characteristics of 
true progress (quo progrederis). And the answer 
is : It is a progress that enHghtens by the gradual 
and temperate development of the affection, even as 
the blush of the rising sun sends forth its light and 
heat {aurora valde rutilans) with a real yet 
measured intensity. Tota formosa, that is, well 
formed, well instructed in every part. Suavis — 
always pleasant. Pulchra ut lima — fair by reason 
of the divine Sun, which reflects His light in the 
teacher, moved b}^ the forces of a supernatural love. 
Electa ut sol — the chosen, the elect of Christ, and 
like to Him in the beautiful spirit of charity which 
dispenses light and warmth and fostering care to 
the young growth that rises toward the heavens. 
Nor is this all. Terribilis ut castrorurn acies ordi- 
nata marks the Religious above all others as a teacher 
of a noble band united like a well-ordered army in 
battle array to fight for truth and virtue, an army 
which, by its very order, inspires that holy fear and 
reverence which is the beginning of wisdom, a wis- 
dom on which depends all our success in the sacred 
cause of Christian education.* 



*A treatise by the Rev. Dr. H. J. Heuser, of Overbrook 
Seminary, Philadelphia, from The American Ecclesiastical 
Revieiv, January, 1900. For this paper and for other arti- 
cles from The American Ecclesiastical Review reprinted 
by his permission in this volume, we thank the Rev. Dr. 
Heuser, the urbane and scholarly Editor of that superb 
publication. 



PART II. 

Ubouobts on Certain Bevotfons an& pious 
practices pertaining to tbe Spiritual Xife. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 
£. ^oti t!)e j^atl)er. 

1. GOD THE FATHER MADE YOU. 

/T^OD made you what you are — a human being, ''a 
^^ Httle less than the angels." He ''crowned 
you with glory and honor, set you over the works of 
His hands, and subjected all things under your 
feet." Yet this earth is not a lasting abode. You 
are but a pilgrim here. Heaven is to be your true 
home. It is there you shall see your God "face to 
face," and be happy with Him forevermore. 

2. GOD MADE YOU FOR HIMSELF. 

God made you ''to His own image and likeness," 
and destined you for union with Himself ; a union to 
commence here, but to be perfected in heaven ; a 
union far beyond the loftiest conceptions and aspira- 
tions of any created being ; a union altogether above 
nature ; a union which will make you "a partaker of 
the divine nature," give you to live of the life of God 
Himself, and share in His own eternal glory and 
blessedness. "You shall be as gods," was after all 
not said without a deep foundation of truth. 



5i6 The Holy Trinity, 

3. GOD MADE YOU TO BE HIS CHILD. 

To bring about this blissful union, God wills to 
raise you up far above your natural condition — to 
make you, by adoption, what His own divine Son is 
to Him by nature, "a beloved son, well pleasing to 
Him ;" so that, enjoying this privilege of sonship, 
and living as becomes a son and child of God, you 
may, with full confidence, look forward to the in- 
heritance of your ^'Father who is in heaven/' 

4. GOD ADOPTS YOU THROUGH HIS SON MADE MAN. 

As God made all things through His Eternal 
Word, ''without whom was made nothing that was 
made,'' so also has He been pleased that through the 
same Eternal Word you should be enabled to attain 
the sublime destiny for which you were created. 
Therefore did the Father send on earth His Son, 
that, ''the Word being made flesh," through Him all 
flesh should be saved. 

Ki^, 6i^otr t|)e Son. 

I. GOD THE SON REDEEMED YOU. 

"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among 
us." Why this Incarnation of the Son of God? 
For your sake. Though God, He became a man like 
unto yourself, in order that you, a mere man, might 
become like unto Him, and, through Him, like unto 
God. He came to draw you to Himself. From 
heaven He descended upon earth to lift you up from 
earth to heaven. 

But there was an obstacle in the way of His mer- 
ciful design in your behalf — an obstacle which no 
created power could remove. It was sin. "By one 
man sin entered into the world." And by that sin 
you were made a slave of Satan, doomed to death 



The Holy Trinity. 517 

and endless misery, and shut out forever from 
heaven. What did Christ do ? He, the Son of God, 
made man, took upon Himself that sin, and the sins 
of all men, in order to atone for them, and blot them 
out. He, the ''Lamb of God, took away the sins of 
the world.'' He did so by His sufferings and death. 
''He was wounded for our iniquities. He was 
bruised for our sins, and by His bruises we are 
healed." And thus did He become Our Redeemer. 
And by His Passion and the painful sacrifice of His 
life He not only put away the sins which prevented 
your union with God, but also merited for you all 
the means necessary to enable you to effect that 
happy union. 

2. JESUS CHRIST^ THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE 

LIFE. 

By His example Jesus Christ traced out the right 
road from earth to heaven. If you walk in His 
footsteps you will assuredly reach one day your true 
home above. He is 'the Way.'' 

By His teaching He made known all truth neces- 
sary for salvation. If you believe in His word, it 
"will enlighten you," and prove "a lamp to your 
feet, and a light to your paths." He is "the Truth." 

By His death He obtained for you that sublime 
gift of divine grace, which is the spiritual life of 
your soul. If your soul be adorned with it, through 
life and in death, then will you "live unto God," in 
time and in eternity. He is "the Life." 

3. JESUS CHRIST ENTRUSTED THE MEANS OF 
SALVATION TO HIS CHURCH. 

In order to put the means of salvation within easy 
reach of you, Jesus Christ founded His Church, and 
built it upon a solid foundation, even upon a rock, so 



5i8 The Holy Trinity. 

that ''the gates of hell itself should never prevail 
against it." This Church He endowed with His 
own divine power and authority, and enriched with 
all the treasures of His grace and truth, so that it 
might teach you without error, administer unto you 
the life-giving sacraments, and direct you safely and 
securely on the road to heaven. 

4. THE MEANS OF SALVATION ARE APPLIED TO YOU 
BY THE HOLY GHOST. 

All that Jesus Christ did, however, was but a prep- 
aration for your individual sanctification and salva- 
tion. It was through the agency of the Third Person 
of the Blessed Trinity that the w^ork was to be com- 
pleted and perfected. Therefore was the Holy Ghost 
sent to you from above by the Father and the Son. 

1. GOD THE HOLY GHOST SANCTIFIES YOU. 

God's Holy Spirit came upon you for the first 
time in Baptism, when you were "born again of 
water and the Holy Ghost." It was then He actually 
made you a child of God, pouring forth into your 
soul the priceless gift of sanctifying grace, merited 
for you by Jesus Christ. And having made you a 
child of God, He also provided you with the neces- 
sary helps to enable you to conduct yourself as such, 
and by due obedience and submission to His will to 
reach His home in heaven. 

2. THE HOLY GHOST ABIDES WITHIN YOU. 

When the Holy Spirit of God first came to you. 
He came to stay and abide with you forever. He 
took complete possession of your soul, replenishing 
it with His choicest gifts, especially with His love 



The Holy Trinity. 519 

and charity. Your heart became His dweUing-place 
and tabernacle, your very body His Hving temple ; 
your whole being was sanctified by His divine pres- 
ence wnthin you. 

3. THE HOLY GHOST IS THE BOND OF UNION BETWEEN 
YOU AND GOD. 

As the Holy Ghost is the substantial bond of 
union between the Father and the Son, so is He also, 
through His personal indwelling in your soul, the 
bond of union between God and yourself. And hav- 
ing once established that ineffable union and divine 
alliance He leaves nothing undone to preserve and 
strengthen it, till at length it attains its full measure 
of perfection in heaven. By the secret workings of 
His grace in your heart, and by the outward minis- 
trations of the Church, of which He Himself is the 
life-giving principle. He labors unceasingly to keep 
you ever more closely united to God. 

4. THE HOLY GHOST CASTS OFF NO ONE. 

Should you at any time have the misfortune to 
sever that union by grievous sin, and so expel the 
good Spirit from His dwelling-place within you, 
yet He will not altogether forsake you, nor entirely 
give you up into the hands of your enemies. Just 
as a bird that is wantonly driven away from its nest 
keeps fluttering and flying about in the near vicinity, 
ready to at once return to its home on the departure 
of the unfriendly hand that disturbed it, so will this 
heavenly Dove, even when most unkindly offended 
by you and banished from your soul, still keep hover- 
ing around, in the hope of speedily regaining pos- 
session of His rightful abode. The still voice of 
His grace w^ill w^hisper to you of your soul's sad 
condition, bring home to you your guilt, and urge 



520 The Holy Trinity. 

you to sorrow and repentance. And at the first sign 
of a surrender on your part — of a humble acknowl- 
edgment of your waywardness and of a desire for 
reconciliation — this divine Dove will swiftly ap- 
proach you, return to you sweetly on the wings of 
love, and make you His own once more, giving back 
to you all that you had lost through sin. 

5. THE HOLY GHOST IS THE FOUNT OF LIFE AND 
STRENGTH. 

The divine Spirit is the source and origin of all 
that is good within you. He it is who enables you 
to see things in their true light, and take a correct 
view of them; to think, and speak, and act at all 
times in a right way. Every pious thought your 
mind conceives ; every holy desire and aspiration 
your heart elicits ; every profitable word that passes 
your lips ; every noble and meritorious action that 
beautifies your life — all these come from the Holy 
Ghost, and through Him receive their increase, their 
maturity, and their perfection. 

It is He who enables you to pray in a manner 
pleasing to heaven and beneficial to yourself ; to hear 
the word of God so as to keep it; to so worthily 
approach the sacraments as to be ready to suffer 
everything, even death itself, if needs b'e, rather than 
betray your faith and religion. 

In a word, it is the Holy Ghost who, by His grace, 
enlightens you to know what is good and virtuous, 
and strengthens you to act in accordance with that 
knowledge by avoiding all that is evil and shunning 
every sinful and vicious practice, 

6. THE HOLY GHOST IS YOUR COMFORTER. 

The Holy Ghost, ''the God of all comfort,'' stands 
by you during the whole course of your mortal 



The Holy Trinity. 521 

career, and after death, until you are safe in your 
Father's home. When temptation assails and wearies 
you. He is there to lend a helping hand, to bear you 
up, lest you become downcast and despondent, and 
fall away. In times of sorrow and sadness He pours 
into your grief-stricken soul the balm of His 
heavenly consolation. In the midst of the troubles, 
trials, and contradictions of life He mitigates and 
sweetens your sufferings by the unction of His grace, 
and fills you with joy and gladness. At any time 
that your cross is heavier than usual, and you feel 
weak and faint, and are ready to sink beneath the 
burden, then, by holding up to your vision the glory 
that awaits you at your journey's end. He raises your 
drooping spirits and cheers you on to walk patiently 
in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. When death is at 
hand He shields you against the last attacks of the 
Evil One, and smooths your passage to eternity. 
And should divine Justice demand that your soul, 
when freed from its body of flesh, be for a time 
confined to the prison-house of fire, "until you pay 
the last farthing," even there will this sweet Spirit 
be with you, to soothe the ardor of the torturing 
flame and comfort you in your affliction. And He 
will also inspire charitable souls on earth to think 
of you, and show their sympathy and compassion, 
and bring succor and relief to )^ou in your distress. 
And when at length your soul shall be thoroughly 
cleansed of all its sins and imperfections, and ready 
to go to heaven, it is this same Spirit of love that 
will bear you aloft, present you to your Father's 
embrace, and place you on your throne of glory. 
And, finally, it is He, too, who will clothe you again 
on the Last Day with your body — a body glorious 
and impassible — to shine forever as one of Christ's 
saints in His own blessed kingdom above. 



522 The Holy Trinity. 

7. GOD IS TO BE GLORIFIED FOR ALL HE HAS DONE 

FOR YOU. 

Give, then, glory to God for all He has done for 
you! Glory to the Father, who made you for 
heaven! Glory to the Son, who redeemed you in 
order to put you on the right road to heaven ! Glory 
to the Holy Ghost, who sanctifies you by applying 
to your soul the merits of the Redemption purchased 
for you, and brings you to your Father who is in 
heaven. 

8. THE HOLY GHOST TO BE GLORIFIED IN AN 
ESPECIAL MANNER. 

On the part of God, each of the three divine Per- 
sons loves you alike with a love that is infinite and 
eternal. Yet, as you, on your part, owe everything, 
immediately and directly, to the mysterious opera- 
tions of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, it 
is but right that you should honor Him with a spe- 
cial tribute of adoration, thanksgiving, and love."^ 

*From The Paraclete, by P. Marianus Fiege, O.M.Cap. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

XLbc f)0li? ©boat anD TRellgfoua ©r5et0» 

<B:all to tte 3£leli3ious State a Special ©^race of tje 
J^olj e&t)ost. 

IT is to the soul of every Religious that these 
words of the Holy Ghost may be applied in a 
special manner: '^Behold, I will allure her, and I 
will lead her into the wilderness ; and I will speak to 
her heart/' 

You who are a Religious, tell me, who "allured'' 
you away from the vanities of a deceitful world? 
Who ''led'' you to your abode of sweet seclusion 
and retirement? Who first ''spoke to your heart" of 
the peaceful service of God in the cloister? Who 
encouraged and strengthened you to "leave all 
things and follow Christ"? Who enabled you to 
consummate the sacrifice, when by the three vows of 
poverty, chastity, and obedience, you made of your- 
self a whole burnt-offering, and fastened yourself, 
so to speak, with Jesus to the cross ? Who has ever 
since that moment enabled you to be faithful to the 
solemn promises you then made, and to be diligent in 
the discharge of the sublime duties of your noble 
calling? Who still aids you to lead that life of 
prayer and recollection so necessary to you? 
Who is the source and fount of the interior 
Hfe you now lead — a life utterly unknown to the 
lovers of the world? Who gives you strength to 
practice the virtues befitting your exalted state? 
Who encourages and comforts you amid the many 
trials and hardships incident to your mode of life? 



524 The Holy Ghost and Religious Orders. 

''I will speak and do thou answer me." Is not all 
this the special work of the Holy Ghost, who has 
singled you out from among the rest of mankind and 
called you to this blessed state of life? 

RELIGIOUS ORDERS THE SPECIAL WORK OF THE HOLY 

GHOST. 

Who inspired holy men and women with the idea 
of establishing those numerous Religious Orders, 
Congregations and Societies, which now exist in the 
Church of God, both as an ornament to enhance her 
beauty and as a bulwark to defend her against her 
enemies? Who aided these holy founders to draw 
up the saintly Rules and salutary Constitutions by 
which the lives of .their followers were regulated 
and sanctified, and which in many instances have all 
the outward marks of a special divine inspiration? 

Who has raised so many Religious to the very 
height of perfection and endowed them with extraor- 
dinary gifts, so that they have become renowned 
for holiness of life and the fame of miracles, and that 
''their memories are held in benediction from genera- 
tion to generation"? 

''I will speak and do thou answer me." Is not all 
this, once more, the work of the divine Spirit, who by 
these wonderful institutions proclaims Himself, in a 
visible and tangible manner, the Spirit of holiness 
and perfection! 

EXHORTATION TO RELIGIOUS TO PRACTICE DEVOTION 
TO THE HOLY GHOST. 

Religious soul ! Can you be conscious of all you 
owe to the Holy Ghost, and not be moved to be de- 
voted to Him in a very special manner? Can you 
feel burning within you the fire of divine love and be 
heedless of Him who is the very breath of that fire? 



The Holy Ghost and Religious Orders. 525 

Ah, then, let the Spirit of God reign entirely in your 
hearts, that He may set them yet more on fire. Fire 
is what you need. "I came to cast fire on earth and 
what will I but that it burn ?" Where there is fire, 
there is life, motion, and activity ; there is true zeal 
and devotedness ; and thence, too, will shoot forth 
into a cold, dismal and dreary world flashes of light 
and rays of warmth, by which many a poor soul that 
''sitteth in darkness and the shadow of death" shall 
be enlightened and set on fire. Then ''be you filled 
with the Holy Spirit'' in a very special manner, so as 
to live, love, work and suffer for Him alone; and, 
being yourself filled with the Holy Spirit, make 
known His love and mercy everywhere, so that all 
may come under the empire of His love and mercy, 
and that God may be ever more glorified.* 

*From The Paraclete, 



CHAPTER L. 
XEbe IfuDvvelling of tbe 1boli^ Spirit. 

J^oto to Slibe h^ tl)e Spirit. 

^?^HOSE who believe in the indwelHng of the Holy 
^^ Ghost are bound to use every means to live by 
Him who has given Himself to them. We live by 
Him, and w^e must make it manifest that we live by 
Him. ''If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in 
the Spirit" (Gal. v. 25). In other words, just 
as a man's life and career are the result of his char- 
acter, endowments, and acquirements, so the result 
of this presence within us of the Spirit of Jesus 
must be a supernatural activity corresponding with 
the divine principle which thus animates us. ''Thou 
shalt send forth Thy Spirit," says the Psalmist, "and 
they shall be created" (Ps. ciii. 30). Create me, O 
Spirit of God ! Leave me not to my nature ! Leave 
me not to the earth, to sense, to the flesh, to human 
judgment and opinion; but give me other faculties 
and higher powers, that I may live in the region of 
the spiritual and the supernatural ! 

The chief effects of the presence of the Holy Spirit 
in our soul and heart should be fear, divine love, and 
peace. It would seem, perhaps, as if we should add 
understanding to these three. But although the 
principal office of the Holy Ghost, according to the 
words of Our Lord, is to teach, yet the kind of 
teaching here meant is not teaching in the ordinary 
sense of the word. Intellectual illumination, in the 
strict acceptation of the term, is only rarely given 
by the Holy Spirit directly. It was given to the 



The Indzvelling of the Holy Spirit. 527 

apostles because they were the apostles. It is given 
to many apostolic men, as the world goes on — to 
great doctors and saintly pastors. But ''teaching/' 
as it regards the greater number of souls, results 
rather in the firm and luminous grasp of conclusions 
than in the gift of proving such conclusions. It 
means the gift of being right, of loving what is right, 
and of enjoying what is right. It means wisdom 
rather than understanding. We pray to the Holy 
Ghost to ''illuminate our intellect" — but it does not 
mean that we ask for learning, but for enlightenment 
as a means to piety. 

The first manifestation of the indwelling Spirit is 
holy fear. In the Scriptures fear is called sometimes 
the "beginning of wisdom" (Ecclus. i. 16), and 
sometimes wisdom itself (Job xxviii. 28). In the 
first chapter of Ecclesiasticus, in which the outpour- 
ing of the Holy Spirit is most beautifully described 
under the name of Wisdom, fear is first said to be 
the beginning of wisdom, and presently the "fulness 
of wisdom" {ihid. 20). It miay be called both. For 
when we say that the result of the presence of the 
Holy Ghost is fear, we refer to a very deep and most 
important effect which that presence has upon our 
relations with Almighty God. Perhaps there has 
been a moment in our lives when we remember 
passing to a state of consciousness of God. Our 
previous state may have been ignorance, or indif- 
ference, or sin, or tepidity, or all of these at once. 
But the hour came w^hen we began to feel God — 
to fear, reverence, apprehend God — to be anxious 
about Him ; to be anxious about ourselves, our 
destiny, our career, our whole life from its beginning 
to its end. Then we began to understand the awful- 
tiess of God's majesty, and the inevitableness of His 
power. Then we began to see how our beginning 



528 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

and our end were in His hands. We seemed to get 
a glimpse of eternity. We stood in the presence of 
death. We felt the tremendous anxiety of the Judg- 
ment. With these thoughts there came a conscious- 
ness of sin. We began to mourn for the commis- 
sions and omissions of our youth and ignorance. 
We seemed to be standing on the brink of a preci- 
pice, with destruction threatening us. All this had 
the effect of making us turn to God — of urging, of 
driving us to God, as our only hope, our one and 
only Friend. It was a great grace. But probably 
that grace may have remained with us still. We 
have at this moment a habitual attention and rever- 
ence for God ; we live in the sight of our last end ; 
we meditate on the four last things ; we dread the 
defilement of sin, enter into the seriousness of life, 
and are on the alert as to its spiritual dangers. We 
feel we must belong to God and save our immortal 
soul, cost what it may. O happy state of conversion ! 
O admirable working of the Holy Spirit ! For it is 
He who has filled us with this filial and salutary fear. 
It is a state and condition entirely opposed to any- 
thing which could result from mere human reason, 
or from the promptings of sense, of self-love, of 
worldly wasdom or of human prudence. The world- 
ling possesses it not. His fears, his apprehension, 
look in quite another direction. He is blind to judg- 
ment, to the certainty of death, to the majesty of 
God. He seems to be deficient in some power or 
faculty, which the follower of Christ is endowed 
with. And this is true. The follower of Christ lives 
by the Holy Spirit. O blessed Comforter, give me 
grace to remember Thee ! 

The second effect of the presence of the Spirit in 
the spirit of man is divine love. When it is called 
the ''second," it is not to be understood that these 



The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 529 

three effects are not simultaneous. Wherever the 
Holy Ghost is, there they are, as a habit of the soul, 
and there they ought to be as its life and activity. 
Divine love manifests itself in the tender, affection- 
ate disposition of the heart toward God as a Father 
and Friend. Just as the worldling loves other 
human beings — relatives, benefactors, congenial 
spirits, or perhaps loves no one but himself — so the 
spiritual man cares for God. He does not always 
feel toward God with the intensity of sensibility 
which is m.et with in earthly love and liking. But 
his will and reason adhere to his heavenly Father. 
And by dint of thought and reflection, by dwelling in 
meditation on what God is, by living in His pres- 
ence, by arousing and exciting all his being to praise 
Him, the time comes when the ''whole" heart 
is given to Him. Thus we see in devout per- 
sons a tenderness and affectionateness to Almighty 
God which keep them in an attitude of con- 
stant concern about His interests, as well as in con- 
stant certainty that He loves them. They love, also, 
for His sake, that stupendous manifestation of Him- 
self in the Incarnation. They love the sacred human- 
ity in all its mysteries, from Bethlehem to the cross. 
They are fondly filial to His blessed Mother, who is 
so bound up with all that He Himself is and does. 
The holy angels and the saints are dear to them, as 
immortal spirits who are the conquest of the precious 
blood. Every trace of God on earth is precious to 
them. They would die for that Church which He 
has acquired by His blood. They glory in the 
Blessed Sacrament and in the whole of that seven- 
fold dispensation where the precious blood flows. 
There is no man or w^oman or child but is the ob- 
ject of their deep and warm interest and sympathy, 
as being the beloved child of God, destined for the 



530 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

beatific vision. Contrast this spirit with that of the 
worldly person ! What are his sentiments about the 
Church, the saints, the Holy Eucharist, the sacra- 
ments, the souls of Christ's little ones? What are 
his feelings to God Himself? From the bottom of 
your heart give thanks to that Paraclete who has 
lifted you to this heavenly love of heavenly things ! 
Of peace, wdiich is the third effect of the indwell- 
ing of the Spirit, little need be said here. To under- 
stand what is meant, let us remember that the en- 
deavor to live by the Spirit naturally and inevitably 
entails a continuous conflict. Our life is a "warfare" 
— because fear and love, as set in motion by the 
Spirit, are at variance with a score of other propen- 
sities and inclinations of our nature. The peace, 
therefore, which is here meant, is that deep, funda- 
mental, and substantial tranquillity which subsists 
in the soul, in spite of innumerable conflicts on the 
surface. This is a gift of the indwelling Spirit. 
Thus, when we are in anxiety as to what course to 
take, or what means to employ, in order to draw 
nearer to Christ, such anxiety will not (if the Spirit 
acts in us) deprive us of peace. In questions of 
vocation, for example, there is a sweet abandonment 
to God's will felt through all the troubles and the un- 
certainty of the process of decision. Temptations, 
again, could never drive the truly spiritual man to 
desperation or sting him into recklessness. Our 
dealings with others, even when our self-love is 
ruffled, or our rights invaded, or our good name in- 
jured, will never move our hearts from the attitude 
of charity. Nor will any kind of violent, heavy, or 
oppressive occupation separate us from God. His 
peace, as the Apostle says, ''surpasseth all under- 
standing" (Philip, iv. 7) ; that is, no one who engages 
in the conflict of life with merely human motives can 



The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 531 

conceive what it is to be at peace even when you are 
fighting. This is the peace that we pray for, that we 
vv^ish to others, that is expressed so constantly in the 
forms of the Church ; it is the special peace of the In- 
carnation, brought to the earth by the Prince of 
peace, and breathed over all the world by His Spirit. 
Keep me faithful, O divine Spirit, to Thy presence, 
that I may never lose the tranquillity of Thy opera- 
tion ! Anchor my soul deep down in the everlasting 
foundations firmly fixed by Thy power and Thy 
goodness, that no trial may move me, but that my 
fear and my love may grow for evermore in the 
supernatural tranquillity of Thy majesty! 

For purposes of self-examination, then, and in 
order to arouse ourselves to cooperate with the Holy 
Spirit of God thus given to us, we may ask our- 
selves : 

1. Have we a keen feeling for the supernatural? 
Do we view things from the point of view of faith ? 
Do we value the Mass, the sacraments? Are we 
in the habit of putting our eternal interests first? 
Are we anxious for the salvation of others ? Or, on 
the other hand, are we indifferent in matters of 
piety ; careless in spiritual duties ; inclined even to 
show contempt for small religious observances ; fond 
of the world and its applause? 

2. Are we sensitive in regard to sin? Does the 
thought of mortal sin in ourselves or others fill us 
with horror? Are we easy under our habitual 
venial sins ? Do we anxiously avoid unnecessary oc- 
casions of danger? Have we the good habit of 
making frequent, nay continual, acts of contrition ? 

3. Professing as we do to love God above all 
things, do we habitually find Him in the ordinary 
concerns of life? Do we see Him in superiors? in 
our religious brethren or sisters? in our neighbors? 



532 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, 

in those with whom we work? Or, on the other 
hand, are we in the habit of dealing with all these 
from merely human or natural motives, scarcely 
taking pains to purify our intention, or to restrain 
our temper, our vanity, or jealousy? 

4. Do we undervalue the supernatural life in gen- 
eral, and allow ourselves to fall in with those who 
talk of ''common-sense" and ''practical views" ? Are 
we convinced that we may progress in nearness to 
God and in purity of heart ? That such progress can 
only be made by attention to our interior life? That, 
in a degree, even perfection is within our reach, pro- 
vided we study to detach ourselves from creatures, 
and watch, with much prayer, the motions of the 
Holy Spirit within us? Are we ashamed of the 
"folly of the cross," that is, of that external loyalty 
to Our Lord Jesus Christ which leads His servants 
to profess a spiritual life, and to make much of 
everything which is in the slightest degree connected 
with the cross ? 

Moreover, we must remember that the Holy 
Spirit, being a true Paraclete, that is, our true ad- 
viser and comforter, may, and will, give us illumi- 
nation in those innumerable matters of the interior 
life on which our progress depends. It is unneces- 
sary to say that there is a certain danger in allowing 
ourselves to be directed by what we take to be the 
inspirations of the Holy Spirit. That danger, how- 
ever, is very small, provided that we remember four 
things : Obedience must always overrule what seems 
to be an inspiration ; we must always be open with 
our director; an inspiration which interferes with 
the due carrying out of our state of life can not be 
from the Holy Spirit; and, lastly, whatever is un- 
usual, extraordinary, or out of the usual way, espe- 
cially in things external, must always be suspected. 



The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 533 

Keeping these rules in view, we may humbly expect 
guidance in such points as the following : 

1. The government of the tongue, and the moder- 
ation of doubtfully useful conversation. Most 
people lose much time by talking, and yet it is cer- 
tain that charity and duty require us to talk. The 
Holy Spirit will certainly guide us on this head. 
Neither books nor rules nor superiors can do it 
adequately, from the nature of the case. 

2. The use of mortifications. Practices of pen- 
ance, and especially external ones, must never be 
adopted except by advice and obedience. What is 
meant here is that we require light to know how 
much mental pressure we ought to put upon our- 
selves at every moment of the day, in the matter of 
self-restraint. There are some who are nervously 
anxious to be mortifying themselves every minute, 
and who fear they commit an infidelity in resisting 
this impulse. There are others who are far too lax. 
Who shall direct the hesitating heart into the golden 
mean ? Who shall keep us equally from foolish fid- 
getiness and from sloth? Only the promptings of 
the Spirit of Jesus. 

3. The question of friendships is one on which 
books and superiors can only give general rules. Yet 
it is one which intimately concerns the practice of 
perfection. 

4. When obedience does not speak clearly, it is 
difficult to know when to accept an office or employ- 
ment, and when to refuse it. It is hard to tell 
whether such and such a task will only overload and 
distract, or whether our own good and that of our 
neighbors requires us to take it up. 

5. We are often uncertain whether we ought to 
suffer certain inconveniences, or t(5 speak and ob- 
tain their removal ; whether we ought or ought not 



534 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, 

to make a complaint against another; to apply for 
a change ; to make an appeal. 

6. Intellectual occupation, where it is not settled 
by rule and obedience, is another difficulty with 
those who would live an interior life. Must we study 
this and read that? Must we, for example, avoid 
newspapers altogether, or to what extent? Must we 
keep our thoughts pure from all contact with heresy, 
worldliness, and impurity — or must we confide in 
God's help, and, for good motives, make ourselves 
acquainted with subjects which will defile and dis- 
turb our imagination and our intellect? 

In all these questions there is a right solution and 
a wrong one. To answer them by one's merely nat- 
ural light is impossible. Neither is external 
guidance possible — for we should require a director 
to be as constantly with us as our guardian angel. 
There can not be a doubt that the interior Christian 
will; if he duly listens, hear a voice of guidance 
which will prevent him from going wrong. And we 
must not forget that this is a serious matter; for, 
as St. Paul says, ''the wisdom of the flesh is death ; 
but the wisdom of the Spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 
viii. 6). ''As," to quote the words of Father Baltas- 
sar Alvarez, "the abundance and perfection of vital 
and animal spirits strengthens the limbs and gives 
perfection to the functions of life and sense ; and, on 
the contrary, the want of such vitality is injurious; 
so the frequency and efficacy of the divine impulses 
make perfect the operations of the spiritual life, and 
carry the soul on to sanctity, while the rareness and 
feebleness of such impulses leave it weak and 
languid."* 

All men who are in sanctifying grace have the 

gifts of the Holy Spirit. But, as many who are 

*D^ Discretione Spirituiim, lib. v., part 4, cap. i; No. 10. 



The Indzuelling of the Holy Spirit. 535 

thus endowed do not 'live by the Spirit," let us con- 
clude by mentioning three things which may account 
for this. 

1. The first is the habit of venial sins. There are 
certain habitual sins which, though by no means 
grave, yet spread such a torpor and coldness over 
the soul that the Holy Spirit can not act with His 
full powder. Such are sins of vanity, sensuality, dis- 
like, disobedience, worldly interests, and bad temper. 
If we would live by the Spirit, w^e must fight against 
habits of this kind. 

2. Habitually low views of spirituality account in 
some measure for the w^ant of the light of the Holy 
Spirit. There are some who never fully surrender 
themselves to a spiritual life ; never own with full 
conviction that God and God alone must be their 
light and strength. To enter into spiritual views ; to 
take the spiritual side in all things ; to be determined 
to aim at a complete detachment, genuine mortifica- 
tion, and nothing less than Christian perfection — 
these dispositions wall effectively level all barriers 
between the soul and its divine Sanctifier. 

3. A life of worldliness, or of undue occupation, 
is an obstacle to the working of the Holy Ghost. A 
soul w^hich is filled wdth the petty interests of friv- 
olous people is deaf to the whisperings of the Holy 
Spirit. Even serious and genuine w^ork may have 
the same effect, unless it is carried on in a de- 
tached spirit, and unless there are regular times for 
prayer and meditation. The cultivation of a retired, 
interior, and silent life, enables the Spirit of God to 
speak to the heart.* 

*From Bishop Hedley's Retreat. 



CHAPTER LI. 
5e0U0 Cbrt0t tbe OTai^, tbe ^rutb, anD tbe %itc. 

tmi^om W&t i^ust iTollotD. 

^'^tJoLLOW Me/' This great word is the abridg- 
*-*— I ment of the Gospel. The imitation of 
Christ is at once the perfection and the essence of 
Christianity. It is the perfection of Christianity, 
for there can be no hoHer model. Following 
Him we shall walk in justice, and holiness, and truth. 
We shall walk in the broad daylight of a heaven- 
taught wisdom, to which all the wisdom of the 
worldly-wise is folly; under His guidance we shall 
walk with safety and security toward that complete 
beatitude for which we are created, and which under 
the guidance of any other we should seek in vain. '1 
am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'' ''He who 
followeth Me walketh not in darkness." It is the es- 
sence of Christianity, ''for this end did Christ live 
and act among us." 'T have given you an example, 
that as I have done, so you also may do." If we do 
not imitate Him, we are none of His — "He who fol- 
loweth Me not can not be My disciple." 

Here then is the occupation of our life, here is our 
great study; to meditate upon the life of Jesus 
Christ. Let us to-day take a lesson in this school. 
It is one of the first and most elementary, but it is 
one of the most important, because if it be learned 
well all the rest will be learned with great facility — 
and it is peculiarly important for us, who are espe- 



Jesus Christ the Way. 537 

cially bound by our institute to combine the interior 
with the exterior life, the rest of Mary with the 
soHcitude of Martha. 

Come with me to Nazareth. We shall find there 
our divine Jesus with Mary and Joseph, preparing 
Himself for the great mission by which He was to 
redeem the world, that mission in which we, His 
priests, are His vicegerents and in which you are 
His assistants. By your religious profession you are 
solemnly pledged to continue His life on earth, so 
that you may be able to say to the world, "be ye imi- 
tators of me, as I am of Christ.'' You have also a 
large share in the teaching of His doctrine. You 
must then adopt the same means for the accomplish- 
ment of the same end by entering into the disposi- 
tions of Jesus, by imitating as far as possible His 
manner of life. 

Well, let us go in spirit into the little cottage of 
Nazareth and take a view of this poor humble fam- 
ily. Let us make ourselves one among them. 

The first thing that strikes me vv^ith wonder, and 
which with the reason and the thoughts of man I 
could never have understood, is that my divine 
Saviour remains hidden and obscure in this lonely, 
sequestered village for the space of thirty years. 

My God! what does this mean? He possessed 
from the moment of His conception all the treasures 
of wisdom and of knowledge, and He remains thirty 
years in solitude before He begins to preach. Dur- 
ing that period He would have converted tribe after 
tribe, and nation after nation, and He remains in 
silence and obscurity. He must be at least deter- 
mined to spend a long life after in the preaching of 
the Gospel. 

No — only three years of missionary labor, and for 
these three years of missionary labor thirty years of 



538 Jestis Christ the Way. 

preparation. The one-eleventh of His Hfe given to 
His neighbor, the rest given to Himself and God. 

Again, what is the meaning of all this? Oh! 'T 
have given you an example, that as I have done so 
you also may do." I must learn hence in the first 
place to make my own perfection the business, the 
great business of my life — that I must give glory to 
God by myself, before I get Him glory by others. I 
must learn hence, and it is what my Saviour par- 
ticularly wishes to inculcate, that I should not be 
over-anxious to exercise myself in the external 
works of mercy until I am solidly prepared by exer- 
cise in the interior life. Jesus, who was the first 
great Brother of Mercy, was thirty years a novice 
preparing for three years of profession, and I, who 
am ignorant and stupid and weak in virtue, will 
make a noviceship of two years, preparing for a 
profession perhaps of thirty. 

Well, be it so, since such is the will of God ! but at 
least I shall henceforth regard every wish of neg- 
lecting my own perfection and practices of piety, for 
the sake of others, every idea that the time I spend 
in the practices of the interior life could be better 
spent in works of mercy, as a suggestion of the 
enemy. My time is not more useful nor more pre- 
cious than that of my Saviour. I now see how He 
thought fit to portion out His. I must learn also to 
love and cherish this holy solitude into which God 
has brought me. Peter said upon Thabor, that it 
was good for him to be there ; and I will say in this 
Nazareth that Jesus has made for me, that it is good 
for me to be here. I am here unknown and unheard 
of by the world. People may hear of Sisters of 
Mercy, but about this or that Sister of Mercy, no 
one in the world knows or cares anything. It was 
so with my Jesus; the poor villagers of Nazareth 



Jesus Christ the Way. 539 

knew that there was such a person among them ; 
they thought Him a mild, well-conducted young 
man, but every one thought as much and a great deal 
more about himself. The members of your com- 
munity, dear Sister, think you perhaps an edifying 
nun, but each thinks herself as good as you. Great 
God ! the world was then occupied about kings and 
emperors and consuls and conquerors, and the King 
of kings and the Lord of lords was among them un- 
known and unheeded. 

O God ! and is this the Creator of heaven and 
earth that I contemplate? Yes, and He is reduced 
to this state for me. What a sublime humility ! What 
a mockery of all the pride and folly of man ! 

Oh! will we not love the lowliness of Our Sa- 
viour, and will we not love to be lowly with Him? 
He could have attracted the attention of mankind by 
His supernatural knowledge, by His power over all 
nations, and He hides these qualities. He contents 
Himself with edifying those who know Him by His 
meekness and piety. And w^e wish to show every 
talent which God has given us, to make a parade of 
it and attract attention ; we even pretend to talents 
which we have not; if we receive a little insult we 
are instantly on fire, every little humiliation stings 
us. 

Ah ! we have not as yet studied long enough in 
Nazareth. Let us go there to learn this fundamen- 
tal virtue of humility, this love of contempt which 
is the heroism of Christianity. We shall learn it by 
meditating on the humiliations of Jesus, and by 
loving to be like Him whom we love. We have the 
happiness of being in circumstances like to His, so 
that His goodness has rendered the thing easy to 
us ; we have only to make a virtue of necessity. 

Jesus was poor in Nazareth ; His birth proves it, 



540 Jesus Christ the Way. 

and He suffered all the inconveniences of poverty. 
He was meanly clad, He fed upon coarse food which 
He earned by the sweat of His brow — He lived in 
a poor humble cottage, a cabin rather. When I con- 
template Him walking through the village in His 
poor workman's dress, when I contemplate Him at 
night eating the poor scanty meal which Mary had 
prepared for Him ; when I see Him going to re- 
pose His wearied limbs upon a hard and comfort- 
less bed, I ask Him, why, having all things at His 
disposal. He is thus destitute ? and He answers me 
that it is to enrich me with the treasures of heaven. 
''For us hath He been made poor, that by His pov- 
erty w^e might be rich." He tells me that it is to in- 
spire me with a sovereign contempt for the riches of 
the world, and to give me the sublime spirit of re- 
ligious poverty which says, ''I esteem all things 
as dung that I may gain Christ." He tells me that 
it is to make me content in privation, by which I re- 
semble Him. 

Well, we know the happiness of being poor too. 
Yes, dearly beloved sisters, blessed be God for it! 
we possess nothing in the world. Jesus had not 
whereon to lay His head, and the pillow on which we 
lay ours is not our own. Praise and thanks to you, 
good Jesus, who hast called me to this. What is 
better, I have the happiness of enduring many of the 
inconveniences of poverty. When cold annoys me, 
when I am uncomfortable in my room, I will remem- 
ber the indigence of Nazareth, and I will rejoice in 
the Lord. 

Jesus labored at Nazareth. The prophetic word of 
David was fulfilled in Him — He was in ''labors from 
His youth." His labor was continuous day after day 
— His labor was rude and humiHating. Must I not 
love Him when I contemplate Him straining every 



Jesus Christ the Way. 541 

limb, while the sweat runs down His blessed face, 
employed in some dangerous occupation, roofing one 
of the houses of the village? And then when I en- 
ter into the secrets of His soul, and seek the motive 
of all this, I find that every drop of sweat flows for 
me, that all this labor is undertaken for me, that at 
every instant, whether He works or whether, over- 
whelmed with fatigue. He is obliged to rest. His 
Heart burning with charity never ceases to offer up 
all to His Eternal Father for me. 

I must labor too. I am here to labor. I will there- 
fore labor generously. I will labor as incessantly as 
my strength will permit. . I will labor not at what 
pleases my own fancy, but in what God wishes me to 
labor, and I will labor in union with Jesus. During 
the day, I will offer up my fatigue in union with His 
to God, and at night, "in peace together with Him 
shall I sleep and rest.'' 

When Jesus labored. He never met, to be sure, 
with any reproaches from Joseph ; but how often 
after doing His utmost was He not rebuked by the 
rude farmers or villagers of Nazareth ! Even after 
He had worked miracles, they attempted to throw 
Him from the pinnacle of a mountain. In the same 
way after doing my best I will frequently not suc- 
ceed in pleasing all. I may be frequently reminded 
of my want of capacity — sometimes reproached per- 
haps with idleness — sometimes I may receive a rude 
rebuff from those to whom I shall offer the sweet 
alms of spiritual mercy. So much the better, I will 
be the more like to my Saviour. I will say to my 
Father, who sees not as man sees : You know, my 
God, that what I could do I have done. If I have to 
reproach myself with sloth I ask your pardon. If 
my defect arises from incapacity I humbly resign 
myself into your hands, I am as clever as you wish 



542 Jesus Christ the Way. 

me to be. If others are not satisfied with me, you 
will be. You who see in secret will reward me. 

I have now learned from my divine Saviour in 
Nazareth the love of obscurity, the love of humility, 
the love of poverty, the love of labor. I shall en- 
deavor to learn this good lesson by heart, and com- 
mit it so to memory that I may never forget it.'^ 

Another lesson that we must learn from our divine 
Master at Nazareth is that of obedience. ''And He 
went down with them and came to Nazareth and 
was subject to them." Jesus Christ, the uncreated 
wisdom of the Father, was obedient to Mary and 
Joseph; He renounces His owm judgment, submits 
cheerfully to the will of a poor carpenter and his 
wife, and is guided by their counsels. "He was 
subject to them." This is the record of thirty years 
of my Saviour's Hfe. Holy obedience ! How pre- 
cious, how meritorious, how great, how sublime 
thou must be in the sight of God, since my Lord and 
Master spent thirty years in teaching me this one 
virtue ! 

In order that you may be aroused and impelled 
to a more perfect imitation of this admirable example 
of obedience, which Christ has given you in regard 
to your Superiors under whom God has placed you, 
or may hereafter place you, reflect on the advan- 
tages that are derived from this virtue. Can any- 
thing more acceptable be offered to God? As we 
read in Father Baxter's Meditations: ''God is ap- 
peased with victims and sacrifice as the chief acts 
of religious worship ; but He assures us Himself 
that obedience is still more acceptable to Him. 'Obe- 
dience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken rather 
than to offer the fat of rams' ( i Kings xv. 22). And 

*From Most Rev. Dr. Moriarty's A Retreat of Eight 
Days for Religious: Meditation ''On Jesus of Nazareth." 



Jesus Christ the Way. 543 

with good reason, observes St. Gregory ; for 'in sac- 
rifice the flesh of another is offered, but in obedience 
our own will is killed and the whole man offered 
in sacrifice.' 

''There is no safer way to heaven than 
the road of obedience. Saints and holy Fathers teach 
us that there is nothing more dangerous in a spirit- 
ual life than to be our own guide and to follow our 
own judgment. Hence St. Bernard observes: 'He 
that is his own master has a fool for his scholar' ; 
for, as Solomon writes, 'The way of a fool is right 
in his own eyes ; but he who is wise hearkeneth unto 
counsels' (Prov. xii. 15). 

"In the virtue of obedience all other virtues are 
included, and therefore by holy Fathers it is called 
the guardian of them all. He who is obedient can 
not fail to be humble, patient, meek, charitable, and 
master of himself ; for, as the Wise Man says, 'An 
obedient man shall speak of victory' (Prov. xxi. 28). 
Form a growing esteem, then, for this virtue, and 
exercise it in imitation of Christ whenever occasions 
offer." 

"Obedience,^' says St. Catharine of Bologna, "is 
without doubt more meritorious than any austerity. 
What austerity is greater than to keep the will con- 
tinually submissive?" "Obedience," says St. John 
of the Cross, "is a penance of the reason ; this is 
what renders the sacrifice more agreeable to God 
than corporal penance. God loves the least degree 
of obedience in you better than all the services you 
could render Him." 

"A single drop of perfect obedience is of a million 
times more value than an entire vase of the most 
sublime contemplation," says St. Magdalene of 
Pazzi. St. Felix, the Capuchin, always show^ed the 
most perfect readiness to execute lovingly the orders 



544 Jesus Christ the Way. 

of his Superiors, no matter what they might be. He 
carried so far his love for obedience that his Superi- 
ors were obHged to refrain in his presence from man- 
ifesting their incHnations, lest the saint might re- 
gard it as a command and hasten to execute it. The 
least sign of their will was sufficient to cause him to 
obey instantly. 

'Tt is more meritorious to pick up a straw through 
obedience," declares Rodriguez, ''than to preach, to 
fast, or to chastise the body, if in so doing we follow 
our own will.'' St. Frances, one day while reciting 
the office of the Blessed Virgin, was interrupted 
many times in the same anthem by her husband call- 
ing her. Our Lord manifested in a most singular 
manner that her obedience was most agreeable to 
Him. 

A holy Religious, desiring to animate herself to 
perform all things through obedience, with eyes 
upon her crucifix, which she lovingly kissed, would 
say to her Saviour : ''Factiis es obediens usque ad 
mortem,'' "Thou wast obedient even unto death.'' 

''Would you know who are true Religious? It is 
they who by mortification have so subjugated their 
wills that they know not how to will anything but 
by the command or advice of their Superior," says 
St. Fulgentius. St. Teresa was well persuaded of 
this truth. She said if all the angels told her to do a 
thmg, and her Superior commanded her to perform 
the contrary, she would obey the order of her Supe- 
rior. "Obedience to Superiors," added she, "is com- 
manded by God in Holy Scripture ! consequently it is 
of faith. One can not be deceived in obeying, while 
revelations are subject to illusions." 

"Every one who enters Religion should leave his 
own will outside the door of the monastery," are the 
words of St. Francis de Sales, "that he may have no 



Jesus Christ the Way. 545 

Other will but that of God." When St. Dositheus 
consecrated himself to the Lord in the religious life 
he divested himself entirely of his own will, and 
submitted it entirely to that of his Superior. He 
made known to him his temptations, his thoughts ; 
and by this entire renouncement of himself, and 
great openness of heart, he obtained a peace, a tran- 
quillity of soul that nothing could disturb. 

''Obedience is the abridgment of perfection and of 
all spiritual life,'' says Father Alvarez, ''it is a means 
the least painful, the least dangerous, the surest, and 
the shortest to enrich one's self in virtue, and to ar- 
rive at our desired end, which is eternal life.'' St. 
Magdalene of Pazzi,on her death-bed, said that when 
she recalled all that had happened during the course 
of her life, nothing gave her so much tranquillity as 
the thought that she had never been guided in any- 
thing by her own will or her own judgment; that 
she had always followed the will or judgment of her 
Superiors and directors. 

"The demon, knowing that there is no other path 
which leads so quickly to the summit of perfection 
as that of obedience," declares St. Teresa, "turns 
many from the practice of this virtue through an ap- 
pearance of good." St. Bridget had a great attrac- 
tion for corporal penances. She gave herself to 
these with, if possible, too much ardor. Her director 
perceived this and desired to correct it; in conse- 
quence he retrenched a part of the mortifications the 
saint had been accustomed to perform. The saint 
obeyed, but it was not without much pain lest she 
might become unmortified. Our Lord instructed 
and consoled her by causing her to hear these words : 
"Of two persons desiring to fast, if the one who has 
the liberty to do so fasts, and the other, though de- 
siring to do so, does not, because he is under obedi- 



546 Jesus Christ the Way, 

ence and is forbidden to do so, the first receives a 
recompense, the second receives two — one for the 
desire he had to fast, and another for having 
obeyed/' 

Besides saying that Christ was obedient to His 
parents, the Gospel tells us simply in regard to His 
life from His twelfth to His thirtieth year that 
He increased in wisdom and age and grace before 
God and men. All the followers of Christ ought to 
make continual progress in virtue. Not to advance 
in the way of virtue is to recede, as all the saints 
teach us. St. Bernard observes : ''Not to gain 
ground is to lose it ;" this is why you must ultimately 
fall again into the hands of your enemies, whom you 
wished to escape, if you do not continually advance. 

Another motive for continually advancing in vir- 
tue is compliance with the will of God. He desires 
our progress in purity and holiness. ''Be ye there- 
fore perfect,'' says Christ, "as also your heavenly 
Father is perfect" (Matt. v. 48). No one can be 
perfect or eminent in anything at once, but by de- 
grees he must attain perfection. Hence the neces- 
sity of continual progress is evident. Furthermore, 
a true disciple of Christ will honor His Master by 
the progress that he makes in virtue. Again we 
read in Baxter's Meditations: " 'The scholar that 
makes progress,' says the eloquent St. Bernard, 'is 
a glory to his master. Whoever, therefore, fails to 
make progress in the school of Christ is unworthy 
to have Him for his Master.' How shameful would 
it be to have studied philosophy and theology seven 
years, and to have made no progress, but to end as 
we began ! How much more ought you to blush if 
you have become more remiss in prayer, more given 
to distractions, a greater lover of yourself, your own 
ease and pleasure, than when you first entered the 



Jesus Christ the Way, 547 

school of virtue! Endeavor, therefore, continually 
to advance in the glorious and honorable career of 
perfection. 

''Many evils result from a neglect of improving 
in virtue. This neglect provokes the anger of God ; 
and therefore He says to the bishop of Ephesus, in 
the Apocalypse, 'Be mindful from whence thou art 
fallen, and do penance, and do the first works; or 
else I come to thee, and will remove thy candlestick 
out of its place' (Apoc. ii. 5). God may have de- 
signed you also to give light to many ; take care, 
then, that He do not move you from your place in 
consequence of your tepidity and indevotion. 

"This neglect deprives us of many great spiritual 
advantages and rewards. 'The slothful hand hath 
wrought poverty,' says the Wise Man (Prov. x. 4). 
Oh, what glory should we purchase in heaven, were 
we always intent on our spiritual profit, and careful 
to seize every occasion of exercising virtue! Be 
ashamed of your carelessness, and blush at your 
neglect in amassing those everlasting treasures 
which God freely offers you. 

"This neglect exposes man to final ruin; for it 
was said of the servant who neglected to employ his 
talents in the service and to the advantage of his 
master : 'Take ye away, therefore, the talent from 
him, and the unprofitable servant cast ye out into 
exterior darkness' (Matt. xxv. 28). Excite your- 
self, therefore, to persevere in the way of virtue with 
cheerfulness. Examine upon what occasions you 
are accustomed to lose courage, and resolve to go 
forward with renovated spirit. Christ is your com- 
mander, and your reward 'exceeding great.' Doubt- 
less Christ spent a great part of His hidden life in 
high contemplation and conversation with His heav- 
enly Father; for He who could afterward say to 



548 Jesus Christ the Way. 

Martha that her sister Mary had chosen the better 
part, because she loved the exercise of contempla- 
tion, must have practiced it Himself most perfectly. 
If David 'praised the Lord seven times a day,' and 
at midnight rose 'to confess to Him' (Ps. cxviii. 
164), with how much more reason may we suppose 
that Christ did? Learn, therefore, to become a man 
of prayer, and an interior man, both for your own 
sake and your neighbor's good, and be convinced 
that the frequent exercise of prayer is the first and 
the most important duty of a Christian." 

Study also the characteristics of Jesus, our blessed 
Saviour, in His public life, as regards His exterior. 
His dealings with others, His manner of speaking 
and His deportment ; then seek sincerely and strive 
earnestly to make them your own. Imitate your 
divine Master and Model. Let your greatest en- 
deavor be to become like to Jesus. The most con- 
spicuous virtues of Our Saviour's public Hfe are 
submission to the will of His heavenly Father, zeal 
for His Father's glory, unbounded charity toward 
His neighbor, meekness, humility, patience, forbear- 
ance with others' faults and weaknesses, kindness to 
sinners, and compassion toward the poor, the sick, 
and unfortunate. He strove to become ''all to all ;" 
He went about "doing good to all." 

Unquestionably our blessed Saviour possessed a 
charming exterior, a fascinating personality, a 
sweetness of speech, a quiet dignity of deportment, 
a gentleness and modesty of manner, that gave Him 
a marvelous influence over old and young, over men, 
women, and children. "Thou art beautiful," says 
the Psalmist, "above the sons of men ; grace is 
poured abroad in Thy lips ; with Thy comeliness and 
Thy beauty, set out, proceed prosperously, and 
reign." 



Jesus Christ the Way. ♦ 549 

He spoke in simple language; yet all wondered 
at the words of grace that proceeded from His 
mouth. Why did His simple words convey such an 
impression? Because with the latent power of di- 
vine grace, the ''goodness and kindness of God our 
Saviour hath appeared to all men, instructing us." 
He hated sin, but He was merciful to sinners. The 
Prophet Isaias said of Him that He would not be 
"sad nor troublesome.'' He had all His senses 
under control. His manner and His person were a 
reflection of the calm, the peace, the order that 
reigned within. 

''He shall not contend, nor cry out, neither shall 
any man hear His voice in the streets. The bruised 
reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall 
not extinguish" (Matt. xii. 19, 20). Jesus is your 
Master, your Model. Contemplate the loveliness of 
Jesus, and then your own sweetness will be appar- 
ent, your own modesty will be known to all, and that 
modesty will edify others and preach a powerful 
sermon — that modesty will indicate the purity of 
your soul ; it will also feed and nourish the spirit 
of interior recollection. If we had nothing else to 
be guided by in our judgment and appreciation of 
the character of Jesus, the first twelve verses of the 
fifth chapter of St. Matthew — the Sermon on the 
Mount, the discourse on the eight beatitudes — 
would be sufficient to convince us that the man who 
pronounced it was m^eek and humble ; amiable and 
affectionate toward His own ; patient and merciful 
with all. 

Meditate frequently on the words of the divine 
Master: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are 
the meek, blessed are they that mourn, -blessed are 
the}'' that hunger and thirst after justice, blessed are 
the merciful, blessed are the clean of heart, blessed 



550 *• Jesus Christ the Way. 

are the peacemakers, blessed are they that suffer 
persecution for justice' sake. Blessed are ye when 
they shall revile you and persecute you, and speak 
all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake. Be 
glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in 
heaven". (Matt. v. 3-12). 

This sublime epitome of the Gospel is still further 
simplified by our blessed Saviour, when He says : 
"Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of 
heart, and you shall find rest to your souls" (Matt, 
xi. 29). 

As the author of Another Handful of Myrrh 
says : "Our Lord seems to sum up all Christian per- 
fections in these two virtues, meekness and humility, 
as though we had nothing else whatever to learn of 
Him. He says nothing of faith, hope, and charity ; 
nothing of temperance, prudence, justice, and forti- 
tude, evidently meaning that they were all com- 
prised in some way in these two ; either presup- 
posed to them or following on them by natural 
consequence, or else actually included in their wide 
acceptation." 

''Learn of Me,, because I am meek and humble of 
heart !" This is the portrait that Our Lord has left 
of Himself. It is beautiful. Study it every day of 
your life, w4th a view to self-improvement and 
greater conformity to the likeness of your divine 
Model. Let us bear in mind another thing — a mat- 
ter of great importance. In the words of An- 
other Handful of Myrrh: "It is our blessed Lord 
and Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself, who is at once 
our Master and our most strict Judge, and also our 
kind Intercessor and our Friend. And He is now 
here in the midst of us, day by day, that we may 
make friends with Him. 

"We meet Him on everv side, at home and abroad, 



Jesus Christ the Way. 551 

far and near ; He is never long out of our sight ; we 
find Him at one time sick, and we visit Him ; and 
the next time we meet Him He is poor, and we re- 
Heve Him ; and then He asks us for clothes, and we 
take them from our back and give them to Him ; or 
He is in trouble and we help Him ; or His character 
is being taken away, and we put in a good word for 
Him; and He is lost and wandering, and we show 
Him the way and lead Him back to His home ; and 
He is always getting from one difficulty into an- 
other, but we are patient with Him, and not 'weary 
in well-doing/ And He seems so ungrateful and 
undeserving and repulsive, and yet we bear with 
Him, remembering how we, too, before God are un- 
grateful and undeserving and repulsive. And He 
wrongs us most cruelly and beyond all justification, 
and we not only excuse Him where excuse is possi- 
ble, but we forgive with a full, free, wide and God- 
like heart, even as we hope to be forgiven. And all 
this time we do not recognize who He is ; for He is 
acting a part, disguising Himself from us; our 
eyes are held, so that we know Him not, though our 
hearts burn within us as we converse with Him by 
the way ; until at last we stand trembling before our 
Judge, waiting in terror the word of condemnation ; 
our eyes upon the ground in confusion. 'Hath no 
man condemned thee?' He says to us at length. 
*No rqan. Lord/ 'Neither do I condemn thee;' and 
we raise our thankful eyes and see the face of Him 
who was aforetime hungry, and thirsty, and naked, 
and needy, and slandered, and ill-treated, and un- 
grateful, and undeserving, and unjust. And He 
says, 'Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, 
you did it to Me. Inasmuch as you fed them, and 
clothed them, and harbored them, and defended 
them, and pitied them, and bore with them, and for- 



552 Jesus Christ the Way. 

gave them, you did it to Me. And now I am your 
friend, and I will feed you eternally with the Bread 
of life ; and refresh you with living water, and clothe 
you with glory, and forgive all that is past, and will 
receive you into everlasting habitations.' " 



CHAPTER LII. 

Zbc Cbree Degrees ot IbumiUt^ tbe Mais to 
Cbristian pertection* 

QTt. Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, points 
)^-^ out "three degrees'' of humility. They corre- 
spond to the three degrees of Christian perfection, 
and these consist, as we read in Manresa: "(i) In 
the firm resolution to avoid mortal sin, even at the 
risk of life; (2) in the firm resolution to avoid de- 
liberate venial sin at any price; (3) in the volun- 
tary choice of whatever is most perfect for the ser- 
vice of God. 

'The three degrees of humility suppose the abase- 
ment and, as it were, the annihilation of the old man 
within us. The third degree of humility is the high- 
est degree of Christian perfection. It consists in 
preferring, for the sole love of Jesus Christ, and 
from the wish to resemble Him more, poverty to 
riches, shame to honor, etc., even if on both sides 
your salvation and the glory of God were equally to 
be found. To arrive at this third degree of humility, 
consider : 

''i. Its excellence. It contains all that is most 
heroic in virtue, and the perfect imitation of Jesus 
Christ, who for love of us willingly embraced the 
ignominy of the cross : 'Having joy set before Him, 
endured the cross, despising the shame' (Heb. xii. 

''2. Its happiness. To this degree is attached (a) 
peace of heart, since nothing can trouble him who 
professes to love all that nature fears and abhors ; 
{b) intimate union with Jesus Christ, who communi- 



554 The Three Degrees of Humility. 

cates Himself fully to those souls who give them- 
selves to Him without reserve; (c) the choice graces 
and blessings of God, on all that we undertake for 
His glory. 'The foolish things of the world hath 
God chosen, that He may confound the wise* 
(i Cor. i. 27). 

^'3. Its utility. This degree is the most certain 
way of salvation, because it snatches us away from 
all the dangers inseparable from fortune and honor ; 
the shortest way, because it delivers us at once from 
sin, and raises us to every virtue ; the most meritori- 
ous way, because it is one uninterrupted course of 
sacrifices, and consequently of merits for eternity." 

It is the highest ambition of the ideal Religious 
to arrive at the third degree of humility. As we 
read in Chaignon's Meditations for Priests, ''St. 
Bernard distinguishes between the truth and the 
virtue of humility. The former shows us our noth- 
ingness and profound abjection, and the latter 
enables us to love this abjection itself, and makes us 
cheerfully consent to be nothing so that God may be 
all. The truth confounds and terrifies us ; the virtue 
elevates and encourages us. The one enlightens and 
the other inflames. The knowledge of ourselves is 
nothing more than a preparation for true humility, 
or at most a preparation for the humility of the 
mind. Philosophy has reached thus far, but the 
humility which is the result of faith, the one which 
Jesus Christ teaches and which St. Gregory calls 
'magistra omnium, mater que virtutum' (the mis- 
tress and mother of all virtues), this humihty, we 
say, has its seat in the heart, and regulates its affec- 
tions. 'Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble 
of heart.' Humility leads us to sincerely despise 
ourselves as being really worthy of naught 
but contempt, and to love our abjection as bringing 



The Three Degrees of Humility. 555 

into clear relief the greatness of God. This is the 
first degree. The second consists in this : in desiring 
that all men should entertain the same sentiments 
concerning us, and should judge us as we judge 
ourselves. In the third degree, which is the most 
perfect, we are pleased when men act toward us con- 
formably to the low opinion of ourselves with which 
we have inspired them. He who has attained this 
third degree is not content to sufifer reproaches pa- 
tiently; he accepts them joyfully and seeks for them 
with the ambition of worldlings for distinctions and 
honors. We will not say that humiliations are 
agreeable in themselves, but they render us like unto 
the Son of God humbled for our sake, and at the 
same time offer us a means of expressing to Him 
our love as well as of deserving His own love." 

The fundamental principle of man's conversion 
from sin and his advancement to the highest Chris- 
tian perfection is found in a thought of St. Augus- 
tine : ''Est homini iter ad Deum — per Deiim homi- 
nem/' 

"Man is a traveler; the starting-point is sin; the 
end to be reached is God, and the God-man is the 
road which leads to it," we read in the Introduction 
to Chaignon ; ''behold three classes of truths per- 
fectly distinct. 

"In the first place, man is to be purified by being 
taught how to fight against and destroy sin both in 
itself and in its causes. In the second place, man 
converted is led on to God, his last end, along the 
very safe road of the examples of Christ. 'Fol- 
low Me!' says the Saviour, T am the Way, the 
Truth and the Life.' In the third place, man be- 
comes intimately united to God by love. This is the 
way to perfection ; it is the purgative, the illumi- 
native and the unitive life. 



556 The Three Degrees of Humility. 

''Jesus is a model of perfect humility in His life, 
in His Passion, and in His death. 'The Word was 
made flesh." The Son of God became man, and in 
doing so He did not ch'oose for His condition one of 
prominence, of affluence and authority. No; He 
preferred the most abject, the most servile, the poor- 
est of all conditions. 'He emptied Himself, taking 
the form of a servant/ Nor would He come into 
the world as a full-grown man, endowed with the 
strerigth and beauty of perfect m.anhood. No ; He 
came in the form of an infant, weak, helpless, sub- 
ject to infirmities. He was born in a stable. His 
cradle was a manger. He was circumcised ; by sub- 
mitting to the rite of circumcision He took upon 
Himself the mark of a sinner. He, the Son of 
God, fled into Egypt from the wrath of a tyrant. 
He was poor in exile, and He remained poor in 
Nazareth. Nearly all His life He labored in a car- 
penter's shop, living the Hfe of a poor mechanic. In 
His public life He rejected all honors. He continued 
to live among the poor, and served them as the low- 
liest among them, not disdaining even to wash the 
feet of His Apostles. He suffered hunger and cold 
and persecution and every kind of human woe. 
Finally in His Passion His thirst for humiliations 
was fully satiated. Stupendous indeed were Our 
Lord's humiliations in His Passion. Truly He then 
became as He was foreshown by the prophets. 'The 
Man of sorrows, the Man struck by the hand of 
God, the last of men, a worm and not a man.' He 
hungered after reproaches. 'He shall be filled with 
them.'" 

You have promised your Saviour, your divine 
Master, to follow whithersoever He would go. He 
strode like a giant in the path of humiliations, and 
did not seek the esteem of men ; on the contrary, He 



The Three Degrees of Humility. 557 

rejoiced in being despised by them. You admire the 
God-man in the abyss of His humihations. Should 
not you find lovable whatsoever your Lord and Mas- 
ter loved? Bless God for all humiliations. Accept 
them with joy in union with Jesus, for the love of 
God. The true, loving spouse of Christ follows her 
divine Master with generosity of mind and steadi- 
ness of resolution even to the cross, ''through honor 
and • dishonor, through infamy and good fame" 
(2 Cor. vi. 8). She endeavors to conform her ac- 
tions in everything to His. She does this out of 
love, but she remembers also that her glory in the 
next life will be commensurate with the exactness 
wherewith she follows Christ through this vale of 
tears. 

The unitive life has various affections peculiar to 
itself, and these ought to be cultivated during our 
meditations. ''The chief subjects of these affec- 
tions,'' as Father Baxter, S.J., observes, "are : 

I. Admiration of the majesty of God and the 
divine perfections which w^e contemplate. 

"2. Joy and contentment, because God is abso- 
lutely perfect in Himself, infinitely good to others, 
and admirable in all His works. 

"3. Praise and thanksgiving for His favors and 
benefits, with a desire of seeing and enjoying Him 
in order to honor and obey Him. 

"4. Zeal for God's glory and the good of souls, 
wishing that all the world may come to the knowl- 
edge and love of the Redeemer. 

"5. Confidence in the goodness and Providence of 
God, united wnth a filial respect, and the fear of be- 
ing separated from Him by sin, and a sincere regret 
for having ever incurred His just indignation. 

*'6. Desire of the heavenly things which we con- 
template. Everything on earth ought to appear 



558 The Three Degrees of Humility. 

trifling to us, when we look up to heaven and say 
with the prophet, 'How lovely are Thy tabernacles, 
O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth in 
the courts of the Lord' (Ps. Ixxxiii. 2). 'As the 
hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul 
panteth after Thee, O God!' (Ps. xli. 2.) 

"By entertaining such affections as these, we 
ought to aim at that happy state in which, 'behold- 
ing the glor}^ of God with open face, we may be 
transformed into the same image from glory to 
glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord' (2 Cor. iii. 18). 
We should tlius endeavor to become like to Him, by 
uniting our wills with His, and by increasing daily 
more and more in the knowledge and love of Him, 
until at length passing from this dark pilgrimage 
of human life we may arrive at our own bright na- 
tive country, and enjoy the beatific vision for all 
eternity." 



k 



CHAPTER LIII. 

Ebe McsBCb Sacrament.— ^bc *ol^ Sacrifice 
of tbe /Ilba60. 

Ef}z JHjsteries ot (Buv Horti^s ILiit anti JSassion 
i^eprotfucetr in tt)e pijsteries of ti)e ^Itar. 

DAILY VISJTS/^ 

* ' "T^ E hath made a remembrance of His wonderful 

^^ works : He hath given food to them that 
fear Him" (Ps. ex. 4, 5). The Eucharist is the 
abridgment of all the gifts of God, for it contains 
Jesus Christ, the Source of every grace and every 
gift. All that Jesus has ever done for^our love He 
still continues to do in the Eucharist. There we find 
Jesus a Child, Jesus poor, Jesus our Teacher, Jesus 
the wonder-working Physician, Jesus suffering, 
Jesus dying for us. — Abbe Henri Perreyve. 

How sweet it is to believe in this presence of Jesus 
Christ ! how it touches, animates, and restrains us ! 
Hence how suited to our needs, and how worthy of 
Him who has so loved us ! — Fcnelon. 

Under the veil of the Most Holy Sacrament, as a 
vesture hanging between His presence and our sight, 
there is the Word Incarnate ; and out from that ves- 
ture there goes forth the virtue of healing, as it went 
out from the hem of His garment when the poor 
woman touched it visibly on earth. — Cardinal 
Manning. 

Our Lord has left us His body in the Holy 

*With alterations and additions from Father Spencer's 

The Little Grain of Wheat. 



56o The Blessed Sacrament. 

Evicharist to be therein the memorial of His Passion, 
the sacrifice of our altars and the nourishment of 
our souls. — Lallemant. 

No tongue can express the sweetness which the 
fervent soul finds in the Holy Sacrament. It is 
enough to say that true spiritual sweetness is drunk 
at the fountain head. — St. Thomas. 

By His Incarnation the Lord has given Himself 
to all men in general; but in this Sacrament He has 
given Himself to each of us in particular, to make 
us understand the special love which He entertains 
for each of us. — St. Liguori, Sermon xxxi. 

Let no one approach the holy mysteries with a 
distracted and wilfully dissipated mind. Let no one 
think at this time of earthly or human projects. 
Free from earthly cares, let every one elevate him- 
self to heaven, and unite himself with the seraphim, 
since he is so near the throne of the Almighty. — St. 
John Chrysostom. 

The Blessed Sacrament is that Presence which 
makes a Catholic church different from every other 
place in the world ; which makes it, as no other place 
can be, holy. — Cardinal Nezvman. 

Rightly indeed is the Sacrament of the Altar 
called the Eucharist, that is, good grace : for in it 
there is not only increase of virtues and grace, but 
He is received whole who is the Fountain of grace. 
— Master of the Sentences. 

As by the agency of light we obtain the reproduc- 
tion of objects, so by exposing our souls to the rays 
of the Blessed Sacrament we shall receive and retain 
the sweet likeness of Jesus, His divine photograph ; 
and there will be imprinted upon our very exterior 
itself an air of resemblance with Him, a something 
of His features, a something which calls to mind the 
meek and gentle Host. — Mgr. Pichenst. 



The Blessed Sacrament, 561 

All the saints have considered devotion to the 
Blessed Sacrament the most powerful means of spir- 
itual regeneration. Religious instruction makes us 
know Jesus Christ, the Eucharist makes us feel and 
taste Him. — Mgr. Diipanloiip, 

Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no 
happiness in this world ; life would be insupportable. 
... In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament we 
are like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river 
— he would only need to bend his head ; . . . like a 
poor person close to a great treasure — he need only 
stretch out his hand. — Ven, Cure of Ars. 

As fire converts into itself those things upon 
which it has power to act; so in like manner Our 
Lord, who is a consuming fire, by communicating 
Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist, transforms us 
into His likeness. — St. Dionysiiis the Areopagite, 

During holy Mass, the angels assist the priest, all 
the orders of celestial spirits raise their voices, and 
the vicinity of the altar is occupied by choirs of an- 
gels, who do homage to Him who is being immo- 
lated. — St. John Chrysostom. 

From the silent tabernacle where He has fixed His 
abode Jesus governs and directs His Church by the 
authority of His presence there. At the holy table 
He feeds the people of His pasture, the sheep of His 
hand : He is tjfie Master, the Physician, the Protector 
of souls that belong to Him. — Abbe De Brandt. 

Memorial sweet, that shows the death of my dear Lord ; 
Thou living Bread, that life dost unto man afford ; 
Oh, grant that this my soul may ever live on Thee, 
That Thou mayst evermore its only sweetness be. 

O mystic Pelican, Jesus, my loving Lord, 
Cleanse me of my defilements in Thy blood adored, 
Whereof one only drop, in Thy sweet mercy spilt. 
Would have the power to cleanse the world of all its guilt. 



562 The Blessed Sacrament. 

Jesus, lying here concealed before mine eye, 

1 pray Thou grant me that for which I ceaseless sigh. 
To see the vision clear of Thine unveiled face, 

Blest with the glories bright that fill Thy dwelling-place. 
— St. Thomas Aquinas, ''Adoro Te Devote." 

Jesus, ''Emmanuel/' ''God with us," in the taber- 
nacle is the life, the joy, the hope, the consolation, 
the great desire of all pious souls. "Rejoice," ex- 
claims St. Bernard, "rejoice, ye spouses! Be in 
transports of joy ! You possess the pledge, you hold 
the earnest of the Spouse, to whom you will be 
united in the celestial country." 

Our disposition here and now should be to rejoice 
and exult that He is present in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, to thank Him all the day long and to find our 
happiness and consolation in staying before the al- 
tar; having only one further desire, the blessedness 
of beholding Him with our eyes face to face. But 
that is too great a thing for this mortal, temporary 
existence, where all is yet dark and imperfect, and 
we live in the faint twilight of dawn (for that is 
what this world is), and not in the full blaze of the 
heavenly noonday. That we must long for and pray 
that it come in the future ; then, in heaven we will 
behold Him face to face. This desire is expressed 
in that verse in the Canticles, where the soul, still 
seeing in a glass darkly, says to the Beloved, "Show 
me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou 
feedest, where Thou liest in the mid-day" — ^that is, 
she desires to behold Him face to face, in the full 
light of heaven. But now she must be content with 
the presence of her Beloved in the dark, as it were, 
where she can not see His human form, but, never- 
theless, knows well that she has His humanity here, 
in the Blessed Sacrament, where He lives and feeds 
among pure souls ; and so she says again, in the 



TJie Blessed Sacrament, 563 

words of the Canticles : ''My Beloved to me and I to 
Him, who feedeth among the lilies, until the day 
break and the shadows flee away/' 

So we should find our delight in Our Lord's pres- 
ence with us in the darkness of this life; and we 
should be very grateful that He has not left us alone 
in the darkness. If we greatly love and desire Him, 
we will greatly love His sacramental presence, that 
is, if we have a vivid, lively faith. And faith and 
love go together. If one is strong, the other is 
strong : if one is weak, the other is weak. St. Teresa 
said, after her death, appearing to one of her nuns : 
''What we in heaven do with the divine Essence, 
you on earth should do with the Blessed Sacrament." 
Now, in heaven they contemplate, worship, love the 
divine Essence — that is their occupation. So we 
should do with the Blessed Sacrament. In one of 
her books the same saint tells about a woman she 
knew who had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. This woman used to wonder when she heard 
people talk about how happy those were who lived 
during Our Lord's mortal life on earth, and how 
much they would like to have lived then, and seen 
Him and spoken to Him. She. used to laugh and 
think to herself : What do they want ? They have 
Him now to their heart's content, if they will take 
the trouble to go to Him. Yes, it is a blissful thing 
to think that though He truly ascended into heaven, 
yet He did not leave us orphans, but continually 
descends upon earth every time that Mass is said, 
and remains wnth us, and will remain with us till 
the end of time. Indeed we are better off than if 
He had remained on earth in His human form, sub- 
ject to the laws of place and extension. For then 
people would have to journey far to get to Him; or, 
if He went about the world, we could not tell when 



564 The Blessed Sacrament. 

we might expect to have Him ; and very many would 
die without ever having been in His presence. But 
now we have Him at all times and in every place 
where there is a priest who possesses His power. 
And in priests Our Lord is present in another way ; 
for in them His own eternal priesthood lives upon 
earth. But of this more anon. 

Let me call your attention now to a very important 
point, namely, ::hat in the Blessed Sacrament you 
have Our Lord's whole life right before your eyes, 
from the moment He was conceived in the womb of 
the holy Virgin, until His present glorified life in 
the kingdom of heaven ; that you have before your 
eyes in the Blessed Sacrament, His infancy. His 
hidden life. His public ministry. His Passion and 
death. His Resurrection, and glorious life. And you 
have His example, not only in the past, but you have 
His present, living example and teaching. Now, 
according to all these various phases of His life, all 
the successive scenes of His former life on earth are 
represented here, and the corresponding teachings, 
examples, and actions are actually going on here. 
This is certainly a consolation. Our Lord is not in 
the Blessed Sacrament as dead or asleep, nor simply 
there to receive your love and adoration. But just 
as the most blessed Virgin had her divine Son's life, 
and His holy examples, and actions, and words go- 
ing on before her eyes, to her inconceivable advance- 
ment in grace and spiritual progress, even so we 
have her Son's life and example going on before our 
eyes, in all their stages, which we can study to our 
immense profit and advancement in grace. Let us 
now study her Son's blessed life and divine example 
with her eyes, so to speak, just as she used to look at 
it ; only we are looking at it now, not in the past, but 
in the present, here in the Blessed Sacrament. 



The Blessed Sacrament. 565 

First, as to the holy infancy, which is all more or 
less a hidden life. The counterpart of this stage of 
the earthly life of Jesus is very evident in the Blessed 
Sacrament. The angel announced to Mary that she 
was chosen to become the Mother of God. She 
spoke the words, ''Fiat mihi secvindiim verbum 
tmtin'' — ''Be it unto me according to thy word/' and 
the Son of God became incarnate in her womb. The 
priest at the altar speaks the words, ''Hoc est enim 
corpus meum'' — "For this is My body,'' and the Son 
of God and of Mary is incarnate in his hands (not 
becomes incarnate, indeed, for He is so already). 
For nine months He was hidden from all the world 
except from His holy Mother, being yet unborn. 
She alone knew and conversed with Him, save when 
she visited St. Elizabeth, who, with her son, also yet 
unborn, recognized the invisible presence of the Son 
of God and of Mary. So, in the tabernacle. Our 
Lord is hidden from the eyes of all the world under 
the impenetrable veil of the sacred species, reveal- 
ing Himself in love and faith only to those who be- 
lieve, best known and most perfectly revealed to 
those who are holiest and purest. In His nativ- 
ity He was given into the hands of His crea- 
tures ; in the Blessed Sacrament He is given into our 
hands in holy communion ; and He is sometimes laid 
in the hearts of those who are unworthy to receive 
Him, even as He was laid in a stable and manger of 
brute beasts. His blessed Mother presented Him in 
the Temple to God His Father for our salvation ; so 
the sacred Host is elevated on high in the Mass and 
offered to the Eternal Father. His flight into Egypt 
from the face of Herod has often been repeated 
when the Blessed Sacrament has had to be carried 
away to preserve it from the profanation of heretics 
and pagans. As Our Lord when a child dwelt for 



566 The Blessed Sacrament, 

a time in Egypt among a pagan population who 
knew not God, so in the Blessed Sacrament He 
dwells in heathen lands and in Protestant countries, 
dispensing His graces in secret, and drawing poor 
ignorant hearts to His fold. In Nazareth He lived 
for many years a hidden life of prayer, silence, obe- 
dience, mortification of the senses ; so in His hidden 
life in the tabernacle He teaches the same life of 
prayer, silence, and obedience ; for there we behold 
Him hidden from men, as at Nazareth, leading a life 
of prayer, for the Heart of Jesus in the Host is 
continually active, making infinitely sublime acts of 
adoration to God His Father, and intercession for 
us of infinite value. We behold Him there in pro- 
found silence. We learn from Him self-denial ; for 
there He continually refrains His senses, granting 
them nothing on this earth. He teaches us obedi- 
ence ; for He is absolutely obedient to His creatures, 
the priests, as He was to Mary and Joseph ; they 
place Him in the tabernacle, He remains in the 
tabernacle ; they place Him upon the altar. He re- 
mains on the altar. He teaches humility; for He 
humbles Himself to the depth of remaining under 
the poor elements, under the humble accidents of 
bread, so that He seems to those who know Him 
not to be an inanimate creature, not the Lord of 
heaven and earth. Such also was the life He led at 
Nazareth, where the neighbors knew Him not as the 
Son of God, but as a poor lad, the son of Joseph the 
carpenter. 

Then we come to Our Lord's public life on earth. 
We read how He went about doing good. He 
taught from place to place. He cured the sick, and 
cast out devils. He preached to thousands of per- 
sons. He journeyed from place to place to heal the 
souls and bodies of men. There is nothing like this 



The Blessed Sacrament. 567 

to be found in the Blessed Sacrament, is there? O 
yes ! The Hfe of our dear Lord in the divine Host is 
most active. He remains still in the tabernacle, it is 
true ; but thousands of persons come to visit Him, 
to be cured of the diseases of their souls. Graces 
are flying forth from His Heart in inconceivable 
abundance. Sinners are struck with contrition. A 
poor, sad-hearted child com.es in and kneels by the 
door. The Lord in the Sacrament sends forth His 
power. He casts forth the seven devils from her 
heart, she seeks the confessional, washes the feet of 
Jesus with her tears, and goes forth from before the 
tabernacle, another Mary Magdalen. A grief- 
stricken mother weeps for her son, who is dead in 
sin. The Lord in the Sacrament, being moved with 
compassion, says to her, ''Weep not.'' He stretches 
forth His hand, and raises the youth from the death 
of sin and restores him to life. A mission is going 
on in a church ; a thousand people and more are 
present; the preacher speaks from the pulpit, the 
Lord in the tabernacle sends forth His light and His 
grace; power has gone forth from Him, and the 
hearts of the people are touched, and hundreds are 
converted. It was Our Lord preaching from the 
tabernacle ; the preacher in the pulpit was His in- 
strument. Do you not see how like it is now to the 
time when He did all these same things in Galilee 
and Judea? From the tabernacle Our Lord works 
miracles, both un souls and bodies. He goes forth, 
in the hands of His priesthood, and visits the sick. 
He cures the lepers, by cleansing from sin. He 
gives sight to the blind, by opening the eyes of unbe- 
lievers to the truths of faith. In holy communion 
He renews the miracle of feeding five thousand with 
five loaves ; for He gives Himself wholly and en- 
tirely to each one of thousands, nor does He multiply 



568 The Blessed Sacrament, 

Himself, nor does He become diminished. We read 
a beautiful story in the Gospels, how one stormy 
night He stood on the shore of the sea of Galilee, 
and watched His disciples in the ship laboring at the 
oars, for the wind was contrary ; and pitying their 
tribulation He came to them walking upon the sea. 
Even so He watches us from the shore of eternity, 
from the throne of His glory, as we labor and 
struggle through the night of this mortal life upon 
the rough sea of this world; and He comes to us in 
the Blessed Sacrament, wrdking upon the waters of 
this mortal, earthly life in a mysterious, miraculous 
manner, as not of it. And as He entered into their 
ship, and immediately they found themselves at the 
land, so He enters into the ship of His Church, 
staying with us in the tabernacle, or giving Him- 
self to us in holy communion, bringing us safe to 
the land whither we are going, that is, heaven. He 
chose twelve apostles and seventy-two disciples, and 
sent them forth to teach and to preach ; He chose 
also the holy women who followed Him, and minis- 
tered to Him, and stood under the cross. So He 
chooses men for Bishops and priests, and sends them 
out to teach and preach ; and he chooses Religious, 
who should help Him, and have part in His labors 
and sufferings, and teach His little ones; and He 
chooses you, also, who read this, to follow Him as 
His disciple, and to accomplish His designs in your 
regard, and obey His holy inspirations, and do all 
His will. Is it not true that Our Lord is accom- 
plishing a public ministry in the Blessed Sacrament 
now, even more than on the shores of the sea of 
Galilee? This is only a sketch. But in reading the 
Gospels you may see many more parallels. 

We find also a counterpart of the Passion and 
death of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. He 



The Blessed Sacrament. 569 

was rejected by the Jews ; so He is rejected now by 
heretics and infidels. He was seized, dragged from 
one unjust judge to another, bufifeted, spat upon, 
beaten, bhndfolded and mocked. So He is treated 
now in the Blessed Sacrament, by the hatred shown 
to Him by many men, by the writings and speeches 
of infidels, by the haters of religion, who in some 
countries would close the churches, drive Our Lord 
from the tabernacle, and turn out priests and Relig- 
ious. So, also. He is treated in holy communion by 
bad Catholics, and by cold and indifferent hearts. 
The Blessed Margaret Mary had some terrible vis- 
ions about the communions of proud and indifferent 
souls ; how displeasing they were to Him, how much 
pain they gave Him, how in their communions they 
dragged Him, as it were, through thorns and briars. 
But when the soul is one with Our Lord in humility 
and fervor, then her holy communion is a most pleas- 
ing and acceptable act in the eyes of His heavenly 
Father, and of great fruit lo the recipient. For she 
puts few or no obstacles In the way of the graces and 
blessings which flow out from the Heart of Jesus. 

As for the glorious life of Our Lord, which He led 
after the Resurrection, and is leading since, and will 
forevermore, that is the very life that He is actually 
leading in the Blessed Sacrament. The life He leads 
here with us in the tabernacle is His glorious and 
risen life. 

He is with us in the Blessed Sacrament as a con- 
sequence of the Resurrection and Ascension ; and 
His sacramental presence is a constant reminder of 
those happy mysteries. He is in the same actual 
state now, in the tabernacle, that He was in on the 
morning of the Resurrection, and when He was 
parted from His apostles on His Ascension day. He 
comes to us from the glory of heaven, fresh from the 



570 The Blessed Sacrament. 

bosom of His Father, full of beauty, blessedness, and 
joy, full of the new wine of His Father's love, 
crowned and sceptered, and Sovereign of the king- 
dom of God, and desiring to confer all this blessed- 
ness, glory, and royalty on all who will open their 
hearts to Him. Blessed are we who have Him 
with us night and day! In Him we have all we 
want; for in the Holy Eucharist He gives us all He 
ever was, and is, and is to be. ''Blessed are the eyes 
which see the things that you see ; for I say to you 
that many prophets and kings have desired to see the 
things that you see, and have not seen them ; and to 
hear the things that you hear, and have not heard 
them'' (Luke x. 23). 

With Father Faber let us exclaim : ''All blessing 
be to Thee, Most Holy Sacrament! for that Thou 
art God, and for that Thou art man, and for that in 
love of us Thou art so lovingly and humbly veiled, 
and yet withal so indubitably distinct and clear. 

"O King of angels! Who can tell Thy worth? 
The angels round Thy tabernacle know how far too 
short eternity will prove to exhaust the hymns that 
should enumerate the wonders of Thy Sacrament of 
love !" 

Let us turn our thoughts now to the 

Ji^olg Sacrifice of tt)0 ^ltar» 

and in particular to the priest who offers the Mass. 
This is the greatest devotion, tbe greatest act of wor- 
ship we are ever, or can ever be engaged in — the 
holy sacrifice of the Mass. It is the sacrifice of the 
cross re-enacted and continued day by day, and the 
Lord's Passion and death daily represented. It is 
the same sacrifice, differing only in the manner of 
its offering. It is the reconciliation of man to God, 
the sacrifice most pleasing to the Father, and the 



The Blessed Sacrament. 571 

source from which all good things come to us indi- 
vidually. By the Passion of Our Lord, heaven was 
opened, sin blotted out, and graces obtained for the 
whole human race ; in the sacrifice of the Mass all 
this is applied to each one individually. 

Our Lord came among us, and reconciled 
us to His Father, ''making peace through the 
blood of His cross" (Col. i. 20). He was pleased 
to be partaker of our blood, in order that He might 
shed that blood for us (Heb. ii. 14). But not con- 
tent, in the depth of His love for us, with His actual 
sufferings and death upon the cross He wished to 
continue this sacrifice by the hands of His priests, 
even to the end of the world. Accordingly, in in- 
stituting the sacrifice of the altar. He said : 'This 
is the chalice of the New Testament in My blood, 
which shall be shed for you,'' thus pointing out that 
He instituted it in relation to and as a continuation 
of the sacrifice of the cross wherein He shed His 
blood. In the holy Mass is renewed, mystically, the 
shedding of that same blood, "which speaketh better 
than that of Abel," as the Apostle says, because it 
crieth not for vengeance but for mercy. Not that 
His blood is shed again in the ]\Iass actually, but it 
is mystically done ; that is, the separation of the 
blood from the body is represented by the separate 
consecration of the Host and the chalice ; yet there 
is actually and in truth offered to the Eternal Father 
that same precious blood that was formerly shed in 
the Passion, but which now is forever united to His 
body in His glorified state in heaven, and in His 
sacramental state in the Blessed Eucharist. 

The Passion of Our Lord, then, is vividly repre- 
sented before our eyes in the sacrifice of the Mass. 
There is, first, that essential representation just 
spoken of, where the blood of Our Lord is repre- 



572 The Blessed Sacrament 

sented as separated from His body by the separate 
consecration of the Host and chaHce. Secondly, the 
whole ceremony of the Mass, from beginning to end, 
is a representation of Our Lord undergoing His In- 
carnation, Passion and death. The priest himself 
who offers the sacrifice is a living representation of 
Jesus Christ. Or rather, the priest, in his own per- 
son, is a representative of Jesus, while in his office of 
priesthood, he is Jesus. How is that? Because he 
goes to the altar to perform a divine act which Jesus 
alone can do of Himself, because He is God, and 
which is the own zvork of Jesus, and not the work of 
man. The personaHty of the priest is, in the mind of 
God, and should be also in his own mind, altogether 
absorbed in the person of Jesus Christ; so that the 
visible priest w^ho is seen at the altar is, as it were, 
but the veil which hides from sight the divine and 
eternal Priest, Jesus Christ Himself. There are not 
many priesthoods — ^there is but one priesthood, the 
priesthood of Jesus Christ ; there is but one priestly 
power ; there is but one infinite force in certain 
words, which are called the words of consecration ; 
and this infinite force and these almighty words are 
the power and the words of the divine Priest, Christ 
our Lord. Therefore, every priest is a priest because 
he is invested, not with a priesthood of his own, but 
with the priesthood of Jesus Christ. It is most im- 
portant for us to get this truth strongly and vividly 
into our minds, so that Jesus in His priesthood on 
earth, in His priests, may be a living reality to us; 
so that when we see the priest coming out and stand- 
ing at the altar, we may not think of him as Father 
Brown, or Father Smith, may not think of his human 
personality, which is naught, and may forget his 
ways or peculiarities, or anything which stamps him 
a mere man ; but we should see in him, with a living 



The Blessed Sacrament. 573 

faith, only Jesus Christ. Hence, it is the divine and 
eternal priesthood of Jesus that is really and abso- 
lutely there ; for if it were not there, there would be 
no priest — only a mere man, powerless and useless. 
Oh, how necessary is faith ! Pray for a living faith, 
which looks beyond the appearance; which pene- 
trates eternal truths; which sees that the one real 
and great thing on earth is Jesus, and His priest- 
hood, which is one with Himself. In heaven, says 
one of the Fathers, the sacerdotal character in in- 
dividual priests will no longer be hidden, but all eyes 
will see its identity with the priesthood of Christ. 
For between Jesus and the priest, on the ground of 
the eternal priesthood, there is identity. Jesus and 
the priest are one on that ground. The priesthood 
that w^e have is the priesthood of Jesus, which the 
Eternal Father conferred upon Him, when He said 
to Him : "Thou art a priest forever according to 
the order of Melchisedech," and this everlasting 
priesthood He confers upon men, and shares with 
men. In this way the priest is united with Jesus our 
Lord as nobody else can be united. It resembles 
somewhat the relations between Our Lord and 
His most blessed Mother. How much grace a priest 
has by all this ! He has sanctity itself in his hands 
by the very possession of the eternal priesthood, if 
he only wills it. The priest, if he wills it, can love 
Our Lord with a love that is peculiarly the privilege 
of the priest, and such as no one else on earth can 
have ; a love that may be compared, in its character, 
to the love of the holy Virgin for the Child Jesus ; so 
that a devout and holy priest may, in a certain sense, 
share in the love of Mary for Our Lord, as their 
relations to Him are so much alike. How are they 
alike ? She brought Him forth in the world, and the 
priest brings Him down from heaven on the altar; 



574 'The Blessed Sacrament. 

she nursed Him and cared for Him on earth, and 
the priest cares for Him and guards Him in the 
sacred Host — for no one may touch the Host but 
the priest, no one may open the tabernacle or care 
for the Blessed Sacrament but the priest. He be- 
longed to her. He belongs to the priest. He be- 
longed to her that she might give Him to the world 
— He belongs to the priest that he may give Him to 
each one that seeks Him. Every priest oiight to be 
a saint. It seems strange that all are not great 
saints ; but, St. Paul says, ''We carry a heavenly 
treasure in earthen vessels.'' I say these things that 
you may have a great idea of the priesthood in the 
Catholic Church, for it is the priesthood of Our 
Lord, no matter who the priest may be who pos- 
sesses it. Even if he be not a good man, yet it is as 
a man that he is bad — as a priest he possesses, car- 
ries in himself the holy and divine priesthood of 
Christ Our Lord. 

When the priest comes forth to the altar, take no 
thought of who he is, or what he is by nature ; but 
fervently desire of Our Lord that he may have the 
grace to say the Mass with the same heavenly dispo- 
sitions with which Our Lord is about to offer Him- 
self by his hands in the Mass, and with which He 
once offered Himself with His own hands in that 
first Mass — after the Last Supper, on Maundy 
Thursday. Pray very earnestly that the priest may 
make Our Lord's interests his own interests, and 
that he may place no obstacle in the way of the out- 
flow of grace from the Holy Sacrifice by having any 
worldly and wandering thoughts, but may be totally 
taken up, in his mind and will, with the great act he 
is about to perform. For although it is true that a 
Mass offered in a careless and distracted manner, or 
by a priest with a worldly heart, or even in mortal 



The Blessed Sacrament. 575 

sin, is not only valid, but, as St. Thomas says, is not 
without its fruit, on account of the divine Victim of- 
fered and the prayers of the Church of God ; yet, on 
the other hand, if the priest is united to Our Lord 
in his heart, and absorbed in Him, a devout and 
fervent priest, his Mass has many special fruits and 
sensible graces of which the other is deprived. So, 
then, in uniting yourself to the priest in the Mass, do 
so with the desire that he say it as Our Lord desires 
him to say it, and as Our Lord Himself would say it 
if He were standing visibly in his place ; and then, 
through the priest, unite yourself to Jesus the one 
High Priest, and endeavor to be absorbed in Him 
during the Sacrifice, as the priest himself should be 
absorbed. For He is offering Himself to His Father 
in the Mass, and praying for His glory and His de- 
signs in us. As David says of Him in the twenty- 
first Psalm : ''To Thee is My praise in the great as- 
sembly : I will pay My vows in the sight of them 
that fear Him." 

In assisting at the holy sacrifice of the altar, keep 
in view the four ends of sacrifice, and pay your four- 
fold debt to the Lord, namely : Adoration, Thanks- 
giving, Reparation, and Prayer. You should assist 
at holy Mass with great love in your heart for Our 
Lord, in union with that great love with which He 
came down from heaven, suffered and died and rose 
again for us, and with which He is now^ offering 
Himself in the Mass. You should hear it in union 
with the love wnth which the heart of the most 
blessed Virgin was filled at His Incarnation, at His 
nativity, during His hidden life, during the years of 
His public teaching and miracles, during His Pas- 
sion, and while she stood under the cross and saw 
Him die ; in union also with the love wherewith she 
was filled at His Resurrection, and Ascension into 



576 The Blessed Sacrament. 

heaven ; striving to enter, as it were, into her senti- 
ments, and to love Him with her heart, and to study 
Him in these sacred mysteries as represented in the 
Mass, with her eyes. You should earnestly desire the 
glory of God, and wish to praise the Most Blessed 
Trinity in union with the adorable Heart of 
Jesus, in union with the blessed Virgin Mary, in 
union with all the saints and citizens of the heavenly 
court. You should also desire to give glory and 
honor to the sacred humanity of Christ, and increase 
of joy and glory to the angels and saints. Assist 
also with a gratefur heart; giving thanks to God the 
Father for giving us His Son, making Him our 
Brother and giving us all good things along with 
Him ; and for His blessed Passion and death ; re- 
joicing in the infinite glory and joy with which His 
Divine Heart is now inundated. Give thanks also 
for all the graces and conversions granted to so 
many thousands every day, and then for all the 
thousand graces and favors granted to yourselves; 
for it is a very just and wholesome thing, as the holy 
Church says, for us to give thanks to the Lord our 
God for all that we have received; yes, and some- 
times to go over the list of them ; and we will always 
be discovering mercies and favors we had never no- 
ticed before. 

It seems to me that we ought to have a special 
love for the holy Mass, because it is the mystery 
Our Lord Himself loves the best of all — it is His 
favorite work. 

He offers Himself in it to His Father with great 
and inexpressible love. No words can express all 
that the holy Mass is and all that it does. By it the 
world is kept from destruction ; for the Eternal 
Father beholds His Son humbling Himself in the 
hands of His priesthood on every altar throughout 



The Blessed Sacrament. S77 

the world, and His wrath is appeased. By it the 
hands of the servants of God are strengthened in 
their constant battle against the devil and the world ; 
by it the words of His preachers receive their fruit, 
souls are converted from sin, and infidels to the 
faith. By it the hearts of His children are kept up, 
and their courage inflamed to sufifer with Him and 
bear and do all things for Him. By it, all Our Lord's 
holy intentions and designs for souls, and plans (if 
we may speak so) for the salvation of sinners, re- 
ceive their beginning and accomplishment. By it the 
wickedness of Satan is restrained, and sins are kept 
from being committed, and the consummation of all 
things hastened. By it, in fine, come numberless 
graces to each individual soul; but particularly to 
those who understand and love the Mass as they 
ought. With what love, then, with what recollec- 
tion, should you not hear Mass, you whom Our Lord 
calls not merely to do exterior work for Him, but 
also to be united to Him and to pray for His holy in- 
terests, making His interests your interests, and His 
intentions your intentions ! So, in the holy Mass, 
strive to be absorbed in Our Lord by love, praying 
for the accomplishment of His interests and designs, 
praying for His glory all the world over, for His in- 
tentions in regard to Religious Orders, Communi- 
ties, souls ; for the spread of devotion to the Sacred 
Heart, the precious blood, and the Rosary ; praying 
that He may become better and better known in the 
holy Mass and in the tabernacle. And for this last 
above all, you should pray, since in so many places 
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is increasing, and 
it seems to be the special need of this age. Do not 
think you have nothing to do with all these things as 
if they were above you. Our Lord deigns to have 
need of you and of your fervent prayers in the Mass, 



578 The Blessed Sacrament. 

and He makes the accomplishment of some of His 
wishes and designs depend on you. And not only 
should you pray in this Holy Sacrifice for these in- 
terests of Our Lord, but also offer yourselves up for 
their accomplishment, as living and willing victims 
along with the divine Victim in the holy Mass. 

Cardinal Newman, referring to the sublimity of 
the Holy Sacrifice, writes in Loss and Gain: "I de- 
clare, to me nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so 
thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass. I could at- 
tend Masses forever and not be tired. It is not a 
mere form of words. It is a great action, the great- 
est action that can be on earth. It is not the invoca- 
tion merely, but, if I dare use the word, the evo- 
cation of the Eternal. He becomes present on the 
altar in flesh and blood, before whom angels bow and 
devils tremble. That is the awful event which is the 
scope and is the interpretation of every part of the 
solemnity. Words are necessary, but as means, not 
as ends; they are not mere addresses to the throne 
of grace, they are instruments of what is far higher, 
of consecration, of sacrifice. They hurry on, as if 
impatient to fulfil their mission. Quickly they go — 
the whole is quick ; for they are all parts of one inte- 
gral action. ... So we, all around, each in his 
place, looking out for the great Advent, 'waiting for 
the moving of the water,' each in his place, with his 
own wants, with his own thoughts, with his own in- 
tention, with his own prayers, separate but concord- 
ant, w^atching what is going on, watching its prog- 
ress, uniting in its consummation. . . . There are 
little children there, and old men, and simple labor- 
ers, and students in seminaries, priests preparing for 
Mass, priests making their thanksgiving; there are 
innocent maidens and penitent sinners ; but out of 
these many minds rises one Eucharistic hymn, and 
the great action is the measure and the scope of it." 



The Blessed Sacrament, 579 

That ardent lover of the Blessed Sacrament, St. 
Alphonsus Liguori, writes: ''All the honors which 
angels, by their homages, and men, by their virtues, 
penances, mortifications, and other holy works, have 
ever given to God, do not weigh as much as the 
glory given to the Lord of heaven and earth by a 
single Mass/' 

Our final consideration in this chapter is the sub- 
ject of 

Jiailj Vluitn to tf)e l^ost 3Slessetr Sacrament. 

The following reflections on this point are culled 
from a very instructive and interesting paper read 
at the Third Eucharistic Congress by Father John J. 
Frawley, C.SS.R. 

Who of us has not heard of the touching incident 
related of a French soldier in Orleans? He was 
wont to spend at least an hour every day in church 
before the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. When 
asked by his captain what he was doing there, he 
gave an answer worthy of a saint : 'T stand sentinel 
before the throne of God. It grieved me to see 
that the President has four sentinels to keep guard, 
the general two, and God none. I will therefore 
perform this service at least for an hour." In this 
noble reply and still nobler action are pictured and 
portrayed the natural logic of the Catholic soul 
throbbing with lively faith in the real presence and 
with burning love for the divine Prisoner, the mystic 
attraction of the Catholic heart for Jesus, the Friend 
of friends and the Magnet of souls hidden behind 
the sacramental veils. 

A visit to the Blessed Sacrament — what is it, what 

does it mean? Listen to the thrilling description 

given by the illustrious Cardinal Wiseman :* "The 

familiar expression, 'a visit to the Blessed Sacra- 

"^Essays on Various Subjects, vol 2, p. 264. 



SSo The Blessed Sacrament. 

ment,' so well understood in Catholic countries and 
Catholic communities, contains a depth of faith and 
of love which long descriptions would not so ade- 
quately convey. It declares at once the simple, 
hearty, practical belief in the real presence ; not a 
vague, surmising opinion, not an uncertain hope that 
the Lord of glory may be there ; but a plain convic- 
tion that, as surely as a king dwells in his palace, and 
may be there found by those who are privileged to 
enter in ; or rather, that as certainly as He Himself 
dwelt once in a stable, making it His first palace 
upon earth, and was there Visited' by kings from a 
distance, and by shepherds from the neighborhood ; 
that as truly as He abode in the houses of His 
friends, and was Visited' by Nicodemus for instruc- 
tion, or by Magdalen for pardon ; so really does He 
now dwell among us in such sort as that we may 
similarly come before Him and have recourse to Him 
in our wants. Nothing short of the liveliest faith in 
the mystery could have introduced, or could keep up, 
this practice. But the term is likewise the offspring 
and expression of love. It implies a certain in- 
timacy, if one may use so homely a term, with Him 
to whom it is applied. It gets us beyond the dark 
regions of awe into those of glowing affection ; it 
raises us up above the crouching attitude of Is- 
rael's children at the mountain's base ; nay, carries 
us straight through the clouds and lightnings at its 
side, to the silent, radiant summit, where God and 
man meet face to face, and discourse together as 
friends are wont to do. ' 

And a daily visit means the daily approaching and 
abiding before the God of the tabernacle and the 
tabernacle of God, the daily scaling and mounting of 
the silent, radiant summit, where we meet God face 
to face and converse with Him as our Teacher, Shep- 



The Blessed Sacrament. 581 

herd, Friend, Brother, Spouse, in unrestrained fa- 
miHarity ; the daily reposing upon the Heart of Jesus 
and speaking with Him heart to heart, the daily 
adoration of the Lamb slain from the foundation 
of the world — in imitation of the shining hosts of the 
Church triumphant in heaven — ''the daily worship 
of the adorable Victim on His altar-throne/' 

Who can better tell us the benefits and blessings 
of the daily visits than he who is the prince of the 
apostles of the daily visits, and who himself tasted 
to the full the unutterable sweetness and heavenly 
graces of the daily visits, St. Alphonsus Liguori? 
"Certainly,'' he exclaims, ''among all devotions, after 
the receiving of the sacraments, that of adoring 
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament holds the first place, 
is the most pleasing to God, and the most useful to 
ourselves. . . . You must be aware that in a quarter 
of an hour spent in the presence of the Blessed Sac- 
rament, you will perhaps gain more than in all the 
other spiritual exercises of the day. . . . Jesus dis- 
penses His graces in greater abundance to those who 
visit Him in the Most High Sacrament. Blessed 
Henry Suso used also to say that Jesus Christ hears 
the prayers of the faithful more graciously in the 
Sacrament of the Altar than elsewhere. And where 
indeed did holy souls make their most beautiful 
resolutions but prostrate before the Most Holy Sac- 
rament? Who knows but that you also may one day, 
in the presence of the tabernacle, make the resolution 
to give yourself entirely to God? ... I repeat it 
that indeed you will be blessed, not only in eternity, 
but even in this life. ... Be assured that Jesus 
Christ finds means to comfort a soul that remains 
with a recollected spirit before the Most Blessed 
Sacrament far beyond what the world can do with 
all its feasts and pleasures. Oh, how sweet a joy it 



582 The Blessed Sacrament. 

is to remain with faith and tender devotion before 
an altar and converse familiarly with Jesus Christ, 
who is there for the express purpose of listening to 
and graciously hearing those who pray to Him ; to 
ask His pardon for the displeasures which we have 
caused Him ; to represent our wants to Him as a 
friend does to a friend in whom he places all his 
confidence ; to ask Him for His graces, for His love, 
and for His kingdom; but, above all, oh, what a 
heaven it is there to remain making acts of love 
towards that Lord who is on the very altar praying 
to the Eternal Father for us, and is there burning 
with love for us. Indeed, that love it is which de- 
tains. Him there, thus hidden and unknown, even 
though He is despised by ungrateful souls ! But 
why should we say more? Taste and see." 

We must all become like unto Christ. This like- 
ness unto Christ can be acquired only through sac- 
rifice. And where is the life of sacrifice taught but 
in the school of the Crucified now set up on the altar 
of God? The most heroic sacrifice of love, the 
bloody sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, who though 
sinless died for the sinful, forced the idea of sac- 
rifice into the hearts of men. And from Calvary's 
heights in shining procession the hosts of noble 
souls march on through the ages, and for Jesus' sake 
generously sacrifice their lives for the welfare and 
salvation of men, inspired by the self -same Saviour 
who in the Blessed Eucharist accompanied men 
through the vicissitudes of times and of centuries, 
and ever renews the torrent of generous self-sacrifice 
that gushed forth from His Heart through the 
wound in His side. And the Religious, kneeling im- 
movable at the foot of the altar, with joy indescrib- 
able draws the waters of magnanimous self-sacrifice 
out of the Saviour's fountains (Is. xii. 3). 



The Blessed Sacrament. 583 

The Blessed Sacrament is our greatest, our most 
precious treasure. For it is the same divine Essence 
that constitutes all the glory of heaven, which is 
here present in the tabernacle: our paradise on 
earth. ''The Blessed Sacrament,'' says Father Fa- 
ber, '' 4s no less than heaven on earth.' . . . God has 
thrown Himself, His grace, His joy, His presence 
into it as the last citadel of His love. Let us build 
our tents beneath its walls, and abide there ever- 
more : for those portals are the happy end of all 
human pilgrimage." 

It contains all the wealth of God's infinite love 
and all the priceless merits of His Passion, the gem 
of gems and the jewel of jewels, the Incarnate God 
Himself. ''Let us not envy the blessed in heaven, 
since on earth we have the same Lord, with greater 
wonders of His love," says St. Alphonsus. 

It is the most efficacious means of gratitude and 
thanksgiving to God, the most certain remedy for all 
our woes, the most abundant source of comfort and 
consolation in sufferings and sorrows, of help and 
deliverance in all the needs and afflictions of body 
and soul for ourselves and all those intrusted to our 
charge, for sinners and the souls in purgatory, for 
the Church and the world. Hearken to the inspiring 
words of Father Faber : "Many a time when a man 
is wild with the questions, the doubts, the despairs, 
the uncertainties, the fears with which a view of life 
has surrounded him, and which are barking and bay- 
ing at him, like so many dogs, he goes by an instinct 
of grace to the Blessed Sacrament, and in a moment, 
without effort on his part, all these shrill voices are 
silent. His Lord is with him, the waves are still, the 
storm is abated, and, not after further voyage, but 
straightway, he is at the haven where he would be. 
One look at the face of Jesus and the clouds fall 



584 The Blessed Sacrament. 

away, and there is light. . . . The Blessed Sacra- 
ment is everything to us. We have our dearest Lord 
with us, what care we for aught else? Darkness is 
only pleasant shade when He is nigh. Disquietudes 
are worth their pains for the extreme sweetness of 
having His gentle hand to smooth them down. . . . 
In a word, to have God so given up to us, to be with 
us and to be ours, as He is in the Blessed Sacrament, 
is our all in all." 

Bourdaloue expresses the same thought thus : 
*'No more than one visit to the Blessed Sacrament 
is sometimes necessary to change immediately the 
dispositions of a heart, and to cause the sweetest re- 
pose and full content to succeed the greatest trouble 
and sorrow. Many have approached it languishing 
and overwhelmed with grief, and have returned re- 
plenished with strength, courage, and even alacrity 
and joy." 

' In regard to the manner of making the daily visit. 
Father Faber aptly remarks : ''The ways of visiting' 
the Blessed Sacrament must be as various as the 
souls of men. Some love to go there to listen ; some 
to speak ; some to confess to Him as if He were their 
priest ; some to examine their consciences as before 
their judge; some to do homage as to their King; 
some to study Him as their Doctor and Prophet; 
some to find shelter as with, their Creator. Some re- 
joice in His Divinity, others in His sacred humanity, 
others in the mysteries of the season. Some visit 
Him on different days by His different titles, as God, 
Father, Brother, Shepherd, Head of the Church, and 
the like. Some visit to adore, some to intercede, 
some to petition, some to return thanks, some to get 
consolation; but all visit Him to love." Love, en- 
kindled by a lively faith, will contrive a thousand de- 
vices, and will always find abundant matter for 



The Blessed Sacrament. 585 

prayer and conversation with the Eucharistic Sa- 
viour. A certain devout soul, on being asked how she 
employed the many hours passed in visiting the 
Blessed Sacrament, replied in utter astonishment : 
'*Good God, am I asked what I do in His presence? 
Rather what is not done there ? We love, we ask, we 
praise, we gW^ thanks ! What does a poor man do 
in the presence of one who is rich ? What does a sick 
man do in the presence of his physician ? What does 
a man do who is parched with thirst in the presence 
of a limpid fountain? What is the occupation of 
one who is starving, and is placed before a well- 
charged table?*' fSt. Alphonsus, First Visit,) 

But, as in meditation, so also for the visit it is ad- 
visable to have some method. Various methods have 
been suggested. The renowned ascetical writer. 
Father Louis de Ponte, S.J., recommends the appli- 
cation of the interior senses to the mystery of the 
Blessed Sacrament according to the method of St. 
Ignatius. With the eyes of the soul we are to con- 
template His divine majesty and all the stupendous 
miracles and infinite treasures contained in this 
august mystery — stimulating ourselves to acts of 
adoration, homage, love, petition, thanksgiving. 
With the ears of our soul we are to listen to His 
loving invitations and holy inspirations and the salu- 
tary lessons He teaches — exclaiming with the Psalm- 
ist : 'T will hear what the Lord God will speak in 
me" (Ps. Ixxxiv. 9). With the interior palate of 
our soul we are to taste the sweetness of this true 
Manna, of this heavenly Bread, in spiritual com- 
munion. With the interior touch of the soul we are 
to embrace His sacred wounds and reverently kiss 
them, lovingly approach His Sacred Heart, touch 
the hem of His garment, and with lively faith beg 
Him to touch and heal us. 



586 The Blessed Sacrament. 

Father Eymard suggests a division of the time of 
the visit, devoting it successively to acts of adora- 
tion, thanksgiving, reparation, and suppHcation. 
These are the four ends for which sacrifice is offered 
to God, and the homage we render to our sacra- 
mental God is to be a sacrifice of our hearts. This 
method has been followed by his sons and disciples, 
the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament. 

The method of St. Alphonsus begins with a pre- 
paratory prayer in which he offers the visit for three 
ends : To thank our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament 
for this great gift, to make amends to Him for the 
outrages perpetrated against Him in this mystery of 
love, and to adore Him in all the tabernacles on 
earth, but especially as an act of humble compensa- 
tion in those in which He is the least revered and 
the most abandoned. This beautiful prayer has 
been indulgenced by the Sovereign Pontiff. Then 
follow texts from Holy Scripture with devout re- 
flections, edifying sayings and examples of saints 
and holy men, quotations from the Fathers and spir- 
itual writers, fervent affections and aspirations, 
humble petitions and supplications, varying for each 
day in the month. Into these the saint poured out 
the fire of love which consumed his own heart. These 
holy sentiments and fervent prayers, coming from so 
noble a source, must appeal to the piety of every 
devout lover of the sacramental Jesus. At the end 
of each visit the spiritual communion so highly rec- 
ommended by St. Alphonsus and other masters of 
the spiritual life, is to be made, which consists in 
an ardent desire to receive Our Lord sacramentally 
and in lovingly embracing Him as if we had actually 
received Him. Before bidding adieu to Our Lord, a 
short visit to our blessed Lady for every day in the 
month is added together with a concluding prayer to 



The Blessed Sacrament. 587 

implore her powerful patronage: ''Most holy, im- 
maculate Virgin and my Mother Mary/' which 
prayer has been indulgenced by the Holy See, and is 
one of the most beautiful prayers in honor of Our 
Lady that ever fell from the pen of man. It was the 
practice of St. Alphonsus never to separate devo- 
tion to Mary from the love of Jesus, saying that as 
Mary was continually associated with her divine Son 
in the work of our Redemption, so she should also 
be associated vv^ith Him in our devotions, and lead us 
to Him by her intercession. 

Whatever method we employ, the visit should 
abound in acts of reparation and petition. The de- 
votion to the Blessed Sacrament is practically identi- 
fied with the devotion to the Sacred Heart. This 
latter devotion promotes frequent visits to the 
Blessed Sacrament, and is in turn nourished by 
them ; and therefore our daily visits will become 
most pleasing to the Sacred Heart, and 
profitable to ourselves, if they are made with the ex- 
press intention to spend in reparation some time 
with Him who remains for us day and night on 
our altars, and is so frequently left alone and aban- 
doned. 

''Be assured,'' writes St. Alphonsus, "that the 
time you will spend with devotion before the most 
divine Sacrament will be the most profitable to you 
in life, and the source of your greatest consolation 
in death and in eternity." 

There is no doubt that the greatest consolation at 
the hour of death for the lover of the Blessed Sac- 
rament will be the remembrance of the frequent con- 
versations he has had with his hidden God. How 
often in life did he not love to repeat the sublime 
words of the immortal hymn of St. Thomas Aqui- 
aas : 



588 The Blessed Sacrament. 

"Humbly I adore Thee, hidden Deity, 
Which beneath these symbols art concealed from me ; 
Wholly in submission Thee my spirit hails. 
For in contemplating Thee it wholly fails." 

That must indeed have been a beautiful and touch- 
ing scene in the sick-chamber of one of the noblest 
of the American hierarchy, that strong and sturdy- 
character, Archbishop Bailey. Just previous to his 
death, in speaking to a warm personal friend, the 
celebrated theologian, Father Konings, C.SS.R.,. 
he uttered words which revealed the deep and tender 
devotion of his beautiful soul to the Eucharistic God : 
''Do you see that lamp burning there in the sanc- 
tuary? I want my bed so placed that I can keep that 
light constantly in sight !" For that light reminded 
him of his best and dearest Friend. That light re- 
minded him of the lamp of faith that lit up his err- 
ing footsteps wandering about as he was outside the 
bark of Peter, and brought him safe to the door of 
the tabernacle. Often had he gone there to offer his 
heartfelt gratitude to the Giver of all good gifts for 
this greatest gift of faith, that made him the child 
of the Eucharist, and taught him to know and love 
his Eucharistic God. In the sorrows of life he had 
always found Him his true consoler and counselor. 
Now that he was about to be called home, for he felt 
that the hand of death was on him, he sincerely 
hoped and earnestly prayed that he should soon see 
Him as He really is, face to face. 

The good and great Archbishop could well say 
in the concluding verse of that wonderful prayer of 
St. Thomas, and may our lips, at the last moment 
preceding eternity, pronounce the same words : 

"Jesus, whom in this life veiled I behold, 
Grant what my soul thirsts for with desire untold; 
O may I, beholding Thine unveiled grace, 
Rest in blissful vision of Thine open face. Amen/* 



CHAPTER LIV. 
JEmmanueL 

IN The Following of Christ, Book IV., ch. i, par. 
9, we read: "Many run to sundry places to 
visit the relics of the saints, and wonder to hear of 
their remarkable deeds ; they behold the spacious 
buildings of their churches, and kiss their sacred 
bones, enveloped in silk and gold. And behold, 
Thou art here present to me on the altar, my God, 
the Saint of saints, the Creator of men, and the 
Lord of angels. 

''Oftentimes, in seeing those things, men are 
moved with curiosity and the novelty of sights, and 
carry home but little fruit of amendment ; and the 
more so when persons run lightly hither and thither 
without real contrition. But here in the Sacrament 
of the altar. Thou art wholly present, my God, the 
man Christ Jesus, where also is derived, in full 
copiousness, the fruit of eternal salvation, as often 
as Thou art worthily and devoutly received. 

''To this, indeed, we are not drawn by any levity, 
curiosity or sensuality, but by a firm faith, a devout 
hope, and a sincere charity.'' 

Commenting on these words of Thomas a Kempis 
in a paper read at the Third Eucharistic Cons^ress of 
the United States, the Rev. Edward McSweeny, 
D.D., says : 

"What the holy author of The Imitation vtm^ivked 
is a subject of observation and thought with many. 
An Italian artist was working silently for months 
on the great altar-piece of St. Stephen's, New York, 
and the clergy heard him express surprise that so 



590 Emmanuel. 

many people came in to pray before one or other of 
the statues, or before the great mission crucifix set 
up in the sanctuary, and left the church without pay- 
ing homage to the living God in the tabernacle. 
They forsake /the fountain of living water,' as Jere- 
mias complains (ii. 13), seemingly forgetful that the 
rest are but cisterns filled according to their capacity 
by the divine Dispenser of grace. Is there not, as a 
Boston prelate puts it (Emmanuel^ December, 
1899) • ^ surfeit of emotional piety and a deficit of 
intellectual'? Will you 'bring into captivity the un- 
derstanding' (2 Cor. X. 5) of your fellow-citizens 
by this manner ? 

'Ts it expedient to have that pretty Sacred Heart 
statue at one altar and tlie 'heart all burning' of the 
'beautiful Son of God' on another? Why this illu- 
mination at the shrine of a saint, and that single 
flickering, dust-eaten, sometimes dying, alas ! may- 
hap dead, flame, before the Real Presence? Are we 
priests even always able to find the Blessed Sacra- 
ment in this multitude of lamps? 

''Honor the saints, love them and invoke them ! 
The words of St. Alphonsus may be used of any of 
them : 'You can not love the saints too much, pro- 
vided you love Jesus infinitely more.' Let us priests 
think of the 'infinitely more.' Let us not be con- 
tent with sating our senses and imagination, but 
rouse our souls and those of our people to a 'definite 
realization of the stupendous fact of the real pres- 
ence of Jesus Christ on our altars!' There is vastly 
more suggestion and impressiveness, more inculca- 
tion of solid piety in the chapel at Dunwoodie, Over- 
brook, or Mount St. Mary, with its solitary lamp, 
than there is in some churches you and I could name. 
'Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, 
and I will refresh you' (Matt. xi. 28). 



Emmanuel. 59^ 

''A group of priests were conversing one day about 
the efficacy of prayer to this saint or that. Different 
ones of the elders spoke of their favorite saints. At 
last the youngest very modestly remarked to his 
nearest companion : 'As for me, I go right over 
there'- — pointing to the altar of the Blessed Sac- 
rament! He little thought that his preference 
would be published for the consideration of the 
clergy in this assemblage. 'The Master is come and 
calleth for thee/' O priest! (John xi. 28). Father 
Dalgairns offers a thought that to some is 
of great value : We have the right to think 
that Jesus in this mystery is present with all 
His senses, that He sees us with His bodily eyes, 
hears the sweet music of the organ and the children's 
hymns, and so on. This can not be said of any of 
the saints, as far as we know, for the Church knows 
of no real presence of them. All the more reason 
for accentuating the presence and the worship of the 
Lord Himself, and coming ourselves and bringing 
our children to His feet and to His 'everlasting arms' 
(Deut. xxxiii. 2y) , which is the aim of the Euchar- 
istic League." 

FATHER Bernard's penance. 

Father Bernard was a good and holy parish priest, 
who w^as accustomed to give as a penance in con- 
fession a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Naturally 
the visit should be long or short, according to the age 
and the occupation of the penitent. Sometimes, 
however, instead of one, he used to impose two or 
three, and even more visits. 

Every one knew this. So, when any one directed 
his steps to the church outside of the ordinary time 
of service, he might expect to meet on his way some 



592 Emmanuel. 

one or other to say to him point-blank : ''You are 
going to perform your penance, aren't you?" 

As Father Bernard had charge of a great number 
of souls, there might be seen at any hour of the day 
a group of the faithful piously kneeling at the foot 
of the altar. By long performing this kind of pen- 
ance, many had acquired the salutary habit of never 
passing the church without going in for some mo- 
ments to adore the divine Host of our tabernacles. 

One day, impelled by very lawful curiosity, one of 
the parishioners wished to know why his pastor, un- 
like other priests, had adopted that invariable man- 
ner of acting. He went, consequently, to call upon 
him, and in the course of conversation, very respect- 
fully put to him the question. 

The good rector smiled sw^eetly : 'T shall tell you, 
my friend," he inswered. ''But allow me to begin 
at the beginning. In my father's house were many 
beautiful pictures, but, contrary to the style of these 
days, they represented biblical scenes, especially 
those of the Gospel. There was one that made a 
deep impression on my youthful mind. It was that of 
the divine Master curing the sick. Jesus was stand- 
ing in the center of a large public place. Around 
Him was gathered a crowd of the afflicted of all 
ages and of every condition in life — men, women, 
and children — all imploring their cure. They were 
eagerly pressing around the divine Saviour, stretch- 
ing out to Him their supplicating hands, and they 
looked full of faith and confidence. And Jesus, the 
good and merciful Jesus, was curing them all. 

"The picture was so realistic, so exquisite, that I 
used to pass hours before it. It charmed, it capti- 
vated me. Later on, I felt curious to know which pas- 
sages of the Gospel had inspired the artist. Let me 
recall them to you, my dear friend, for the benefit of 



Emmanuel. 593 

your own soul. This same Saviour who for 
centuries has shown Himself so tender toward the 
unfortunate still Hves among us. His Heart has not 
changed. His divine power is the same, and human 
miseries also are .the same. Here are the passages 
of which I am speaking : 

" 'And running through that whole country, they 
began to carry about in beds those that were sick, 
where they heard He was. 

'' 'And whithersoever He entered, into towns or 
into villages or cities, they laid the sick in the 
streets, and besought Him that they might touch but 
the hem of His garment : and as many as touched 
Him were made whole.' 

''And now to come to your question — and, indeed, 
it is time : Ever since I have been a priest, and, 
above all, since I have had charge of a parish, a very 
heavy burden for my weak shoulders, I have con- 
stantly said to myself that souls as well as bodies 
are afflicted with all sorts of infirmities and miseries. 
In the profound conviction that the Eucharist is the 
infallible remedy, I say to every one of my penitents 
after confession : 'For your penance you will make a 
visit to the Blessed Sacrament.' There proceeds 
from it a virtue which cures all those that approach 
it. Now, am I not right?" 

The good gentleman went away very much edi- 
fied, declaring that his pastor was a man of God."*" 

*rA€ Sentinel of the Blessed Sacrament, July, 1906. 



CHAPTER LV. 

XTbe 1bour ot BDoration before tbe Mceecb 
Sactament, 

STfie piett)ot)f of ^tiotation h^ l^eans of i\)e jFour IBntis 
of tje Sacrifice. 

y^ HE apostle of the Holy Eucharist in the nine- 

^^ teenth century was, preeminently, Pere 

Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868), the saintly 

founder of the Religious Congregation called ''The 

Fathers of the Most Blessed Sacrament/' 

One of the most illustrious members of this so- 
ciety, the Rev. A. Tesniere, has given us a clear idea 
of the method of adoration according to the so-called 
four ends, in his book The Eucharistic Christ, from 
which we quote the following passages. 

Father Eymard, when replacing in his plan of 
spiritual life, such as he established it for souls 
called to serve the Eucharist, prayer by the adora- 
tion of the Most Holy Sacrament, was constrained to 
adopt a method which should, above all, favor con- 
templation, praise, conversation, and union with 
God. The adoration, in fact, must be made before 
the Most Holy Sacrament, whether at the foot of the 
throne of the solemn exposition or before the taber- 
nacle, the burning lamp of w^hich is a sign of the liv- 
ing Christ who inhabits it. 

The mere fact of such a presence claims that the 
adorer, coming forth from out of himself, should fix 
all the thoughts of his soul on the august person 
of the God-man shown to him through the trans- 
parent veils of the Sacrament. It would seem as 



The Hour of Adoration. 595 

though it would be almost a violation of the highest 
rules of propriety to be occupied with ourselves 
rather than with Him, and as though we did not take 
sufficient account of what His near presence claims 
from us. However necessary may be the study and 
the reformation of ourselves, it would seem as 
though, in presenting Himself so openly before our 
eyes, the hidden God, who so greatly desires to be 
known, w^ere soliciting us to study Him, to know 
Him, to apply ourselves to Him first before descend- 
ing afterwards into ourselves, assured, as we may 
w^ell be, that we shall never see as well what we are 
as after we shall have clearly seen what He is — 
''Noverim te, noverim meT 

But, more than this, desiring that the adorer 
should unite his prayer with that which, from be- 
hind the Eucharistic veil, the real Holy of holies, 
Jesus, the one sole Pontiff, offers to His Father, and 
which is only the continuation of His sacrifice — that 
is to say, of His death, accomplished in the morning 
on the altar. Father Eymard was obliged to seek for 
a method which would permit the adorer to appro- 
priate to himself the acts, the homage, the sentiments, 
the duties, of which the Mass is the solemn and per- 
fect expression. Now, by the Mass, or by His sacri- 
fice, Jesus Christ renders to God four principal spe- 
cies of homage which the Council of Trent defines : 
adoration, thanksgiving, reparation or propitiation, 
and prayer. These four species of homage include 
all the duties of religion — ^^that is to say, a theoretical 
and practical recognition of all the truths which at- 
tach men to God. St. Thomas has defined in the fol- 
lowing brief and profound words the religion of man 
toward God: ''Man is linked and bound to God, 
above all, for these four reasons — namely, on ac- 
count of His supreme majesty, composed of all His 



596 The Hour of Adoration. 

divine excellences ; on account of His past benefits, 
testimonies of His goodness and of His love ; on ac- 
count of the offenses committed against His holi- 
ness, which render him a debtor to His justice ; and 
on account of the possessions which are necessary 
to him for the future as regards time and 
eternity, and which he cannot obtain except from 
His liberal bounty, which is rich in all kinds 
of possessions/'* 

Each one of these different species of homage in- 
cludes the most precious and necessary acts of vir- 
tue; they contain all that can be expressed of the 
recognition of the perfections and of the rights of 
God ; the confession of all the duties, of all the obli- 
gations imposed upon man. For, in reality, there is 
only one prayer which is perfect in all respects — 
namely, holy Mass ; all other prayers are valuable 
only in proportion to their more or less great union 
with this personal prayer of Jesus Christ. It is the 
same with the Christian virtues, which compose, to- 
gether with the homage of prayer, the religion of 
man toward God ; the only value they possess is in 
the measure in which they take their origin and 
are consummated in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 
For a Christian there is, therefore, no form of 
prayer more perfect than the participation in spirit 
and in truth in the Holy Sacrifice. 

But it must be borne in mind that during the time 
in which Christ preserves the state of an immolated 
Victim, with which He clothes Himself while offer- 
ing to His Father His mysterious but real death 
in the sacrifice of the Mass, the religion which is then 
expressed, the homage which is then rendered. He 

"^Homo maxime obligatur Deo propter majestatem ejus, 
propter heneiicia jam accepta, propter offensam et propter 
heneficia sperata (la 23e q. CXIL, a. III., ad. lo). 



The Hour of Adoration. 597 

continues, by the continuation of the said state, to 
render to His Father. During the whole of every 
day and every night, in the permanence of this state 
of Victim beneath the species of bread and wine, He 
adores the majesty, thanks the goodness, makes rep- 
aration to the justice, implores the liberality of God. 

This it is which inspired Father Eymard with his 
method of adoration, called by him the method of the 
four ends of the sacrifice. Placing the adorers in the 
presence of Jesus, the perfect Adorer, could he ask 
of them anything more opportune, more suitable, 
more necessary even, than to unite themselves to the 
Master of prayer, to the Pontiff in the exercise of 
His prayer, and to pray like Him, with Him, by 
Him? 

He therefore asks of his disciples to aim prima- 
rily, in their adorations, at the production of acts of 
adoration, of thanksgiving, of reparation, and of 
prayer ; to address them to God the Father, by Jesus 
Christ, the Mediator and Pontiff ; to address them to 
Jesus Christ Himself, who is God as well as Priest, 
and the eternal end of all things, at the same time as 
a Mediator between His Father and men. 

But as all these species of homage ought to spring 
from everything which God has revealed to us re- 
specting His excellences, from all that His bounty 
has given us, from all that we owe to His justice, 
from all that we expect from His infinitely bountiful 
plenitude, Father Eymard teaches his disciples to 
discover in all truths, all mysteries, in all subjects 
of meditation, the motives of adoration, of thanks- 
giving, of reparation and of prayer which they neces- 
sarily contain. He teaches them what acts of virtue 
are inferred by each one of these species of primor- 
dial homage in order to be properly rendered, some 
virtues being more suitable to adoration, others to 



598 The Hour of Adoration, 

thanksgiving, others to reparation, and others, lastly, 
to prayer. Finally, these motives not being able to 
be discovered, and these acts to be produced, except 
by a certain labor of the faculties and of the powers, 
Father Eymard demands from the intelligence, the 
heart, and the will their regular cooperation, which 
is what all the different methods of prayer claim. 
In this manner the whole of the interior be- 
ing is seen to be employing itself in successively 
producing, in union with the Eucharistic Pon- 
tiff, the homage of the great and perpetual prayer of 
this sacrifice. 

From the strictly methodical point of view each of 
these species of homage ought to succeed one an- 
other in the order in which the Council of Trent 
enumerates the ends of the Eucharistical sacrifice : 
Adoration, Thanksgiving, Reparation, Prayer. 
Father Eymard even recommends that the hour of 
adoration (for he asks that the adoration should 
habitually last an hour) should be divided into four 
quarters, and that each quarter should in turn be 
consecrated to rendering to God the four great spe- 
cies of homage. He does not, however, render such 
an equal partition of time absolutely necessary and 
obligatory, and if grace gives inspiration any one 
species of homage may be prolonged beyond the 
others. But whatever may be the length of time 
given to each species, the succession of these four 
thoughts singularly facilitates the exercise of the 
adoration, even in the case of the most inexperienced. 
It is then four successive prayers, each of a quarter 
of an hour's duration, Hnked together by the unity 
of the same subject, but varying by means of the 
four different points of view under which they are 
made to pass ; and each time all the faculties are 
brought into play in order to derive from them the 



The Hour of Adoration. 599 

diverse motives of the four ends and to produce the 
acts of virtue proper to each. What could be sim- 
pler or easier? The same truth, taken up again and 
replaced four times under a different aspect : ( i ) Of 
the adoration or of the divine excellences reflected 
in it; (2) of the thanksgiving, and of the features 
of the divine goodness which it bears, and the ben- 
efits it recalls to mind; (3) of the reparation, and 
of the differences it manifests between what we are 
and what we ought to be in order to accomplish the 
duties it reveals to us ; (4) of prayer and of the 
graces which we need in order to fulfil the obliga- 
tions it imposes on us. 

Such is the method of the four ends of the sac- 
rifice. Can we not see that by means of this method 
of adoration our prayer is made to participate in a 
wholly special manner in the august prayer of Jesus 
Christ, and that we unite our own private religion to 
the public religion of the Holy Sacrifice? That we 
are consequently placed in very near relations with 
the Eucharistic Pontiff, and that we honor in a very 
direct manner His state and His action in the Sacra- 
ment? What could be more appropriate to a 
prayer which is destined to be offered in the pres- 
ence of the tabernacle, or of the throne of the 
exposition ? 

To facilitate the exercise of it, we now proceed to 
enumerate the acts of the different virtues which 
may be produced by our different faculties for the 
purpose of expressing the homage of each one of the 
four ends of the sacrifice. Certainly we are not 
bound each time to make acts of all these virtues ; we 
name them all in order that a person may choose 
among them according as the nature of the subject 
or the state of his soul and the movement of grace 
may guide him. 



6oo The Hour of Adoration. 

ACTS OF THE FACULTIES AND OF THE VIRTUES IN 
EACH OF THE FOUR ENDS. 

Acts and Virtues of the First End. 

Adoration, understood as the first of the ends of 
the sacrifice, has as its object the recognition of the 
divine majesty, says St. Thomas, propter majes- 
tatem, and, as he says elsewhere, that which evi- 
dences His excellence above His creatures, the 
beauty, the perfection, the amiabiHty of God — all 
that constitutes His infinite being. In relation to us, 
it is His sovereign rights as First Principle and 
Supreme End, of Creator and Preserver. 

The acts of the mind, in the adoration, are faith in 
the truth proposed as the subject of adoration, be- 
cause of the divine word and authority; the super- 
natural understanding of the truth in question; the 
spiritual contemplation of the perfection and the 
amiability of God which are manifested therein ; 
admiration ; praise. 

The acts of the heart, or of the effective will, are 
complaisance, desire, good-will, joy. The acts of the 
will, properly so called, are the gift, the giving up, 
of ourselves to the excellences, the perfections, the 
amiabilities, the rights, the sovereignty of God ; and 
this gift can hardly be manifested except by a kind 
of annihilation of ourselves in the presence of so 
much greatness, of so much splendor, of rights so 
lofty, of a majesty so sublime. Humility, absolute 
submission, abandonment without reserve, holy fear, 
religious and profound silence, are the expressions 
most suitable for rendering this annihilation of the 
creature in presence of his Creator v/hom he adores. 

Acts and Virtues of the Second End. 
The action of thanksgiving has for its object the 
gifts, the benefits, of God: propter data, such as 



The Hour of Adoration. - 6oi 

they are manifested in the truth which we are 
meditating; consequently its formal object is 
the goodness and the love of God, proved by His 
benefits. 

The acts of the mind are the following: Con- 
sideration of the portion exercised by the goodness, 
the love of God in the proposed truth, by means of 
the views and the merciful designs revealed in it; 
remembrance and enumeration of the benefits relat- 
ing to this truth which we have received in our past 
life, or which we are still receiving every day; the 
study of the value, of the greatness, of the magnifi- 
cence of these benefits, drawm from the different 
circumstances which render them more or less 
costly; the gratuity of them, the greatness of the 
Donof, the indigence and the unworthiness of the 
recipient, the continuation of the gifts, in spite of 
abuse or of the small profit derived from them, 
admiration, praise. 

The acts of the heart are grateful love, com- 
plaisance and joy, benediction and jubilation, effu- 
sions of gratitude and of tenderness, happiness and 
repose, tlie silence of beatitude. These acts issue 
from the considerations exercised by the mind as 
enunciated above, the heart following upon the mind 
at the sight of the divine goodness and the review 
of His gifts. 

The acts of the will are effective gratitude, testi- 
fied by protestations of fidelity, toward a benefactor 
so magnificent; humility or the very humble accep- 
tance of the position of debtor and of an insolvent 
debtor; resolutions to make use of all of His gifts 
only for His glory, to render to Him the fruit of 
these seeds of His liberality; promises to make re- 
turns to Him for them ; lastly, the gift of ourselves, 
of all that we have, of all that we are, of all that we 



6o2 • The Hour of Adoration. 

will do, in testimony of gratitude and as an instal- 
ment of our debt. 

Acts and Virtues of the Third End. 

Propitiation or reparation has for its object the 
offenses and the shortcomings to be found in our 
life in relation to the truth on which we are medi- 
tating, and which this meditation discovers to us : 
propter offensam. Reparation first supposes the 
confession of the fault committed against the holi- 
ness of God and the acceptance of the debts con- 
tracted toward His justice; then, by prayer, the re- 
entering into favor through His mercy. The formal 
object of reparation is, therefore, justice to be ap- 
peased and holiness to be restored, then the mercy 
of God to be gained. 

Acts of the mind : The examination or the atten- 
tive consideration of the contrast between our life 
and the truth proposed to it, either through our 
formal sins or through our imperfections ; medita- 
tion upon the seriousness of the state in question, 
upon the gravity and the number of our faults; 
upon the consequences which such a state and such 
faults bring with them in regard to God, to Jesus 
above all ; in regard to our responsibilities toward 
our neighbor ; in regard to our vocation in time and 
our eternal future ; and the sincere and humble 
confession oi all our sins. 

Acts of the heart: They consist chiefly in sad- 
dened love, compunction, a breaking of the heart, 
contrition; regret, bitterness, salutary fear, holy 
sorrow, horror of sin ; compassion, pity for ourselves 
and the other victims of sin — compassion, above all, 
for Jesus, the first, the universal, but the innocent, 
the gentle Victim of our sins. 

Acts of the will : Detestation and renunciation of 



The Hour of Adoration. . 603 

evil, shunning the occasions leading to it, the rupture 
of its ties, interior conversion, a firm resolve; satis- 
faction and the resolution to perform penance; 
voluntary humiliation, the accepta-nce of all the pains 
it may please God to inflict upon us in expiation of 
our faults ; lastly, the gift of ourselves, in the hum- 
ble annihilation of the sinner, to justice that it may 
satisfy itself here below in regard to us ; to mercy 
that it may have pity on us, have patience and give 
us new graces ; to holiness that it may restore and 
transform us. 

Acts and Virtues of the Fourth End, 

Supplication, or prayer, has for its object the 
gifts, the benefits, and the graces of God to be ob- 
tained in the future even as the act of thanksgiving 
had for its object the giving thanks for benefits al- 
ready received : propter beneiicia sperata. It has 
as its express reason the goodness, the liberality, the 
plenitude, the providence of God, which it takes 
upon itself to touch and to render attentive and gen- 
erous in giving us all the good things necessary to 
our indigence as being creatures of nothingness. 
The view of the indigence in question had already 
appeared during the reparation, in the consideration 
of the shortcomings and faults which disfigure our 
souls with respect to the truth proposed as a subject ; 
it had already appeared in the contrast between these 
defects and the divine perfections contemplated in 
the adoration, with the benefits and the gifts set 
forth in the act of thanksgiving. 

Acts of the mind : A clear view of our needs ; a 
consideration of the exact species of graces we have 
to seek in order that our soul may profit by all the 
fruits contained in the proposed truth ; the con- 
sideration of the riches, of the plenitude, of the 



6o4 • The Hour of Adoration. 

providence of God, which possesses, without im- 
poverishing itself, wherewith to enrich milHons of 
creatures who are nothingness; a remembrance of 
the promises whereby God has engaged Himself to 
give either by way of facts or of guarantees which 
show that He will be still more liberal, having al- 
ready been so in such a magnificent manner. 

The acts of the heart consist in hope, confidence, 
desires, which are ardent and lively, animated as 
they are by the sentiment of what we have already 
received ; in the suffering we experience because of 
our indigence; in pity for ourselves and for others 
whose needs we know to be identical with ours ; in 
charity, disinterested love which is generous, zealous, 
apostolical, and makes us desire and earnestly ask 
what will be either for the glory of God or a benefit 
for our neighbor. 

The acts of the will are formal prayer or the sup- 
plication expressed by the heart or the lips ; repeated, 
instant, persevering prayer; humble, lowly prayer, 
full of ardor and also at the same time of abandon- 
ment, willing what it asks, but still more the good 
pleasure of the divine will which may prefer, for 
reasons known to its unfathomable wisdom, to delay 
instead of immediately granting; to permit the ac- 
complishment of the trial instead of preservation 
from it; the resolution to carry out into action, im- 
mediately and very faithfully, the graces which are 
asked for; the demand of the same gifts for all 
those who have need of them; lastly, the gift of our- 
selves, the oblation of our being and of the whole of 
our life to the good God from whom we expect help 
in order to repay it, at least in a slight proportion, 
by means of this offering of small value, although it 
be all that we can offer of what is best. 

In terminating, a look must be cast upon the duties 



The Hour of Adoration. . 605 

which will immediately follow upon the adoration: 
to ask the exact kind of graces which will then be 
necessary to us, afterwards to implore through Mary 
and through St. Joseph the blessing of Our Lord. 

Read above all the tabernacles these sacred words : 
''Ego sum; nolite timereT ''It is I; fear ye not!'' 
(Matt. xiv. 27.) 

Live everywhere, by your heart and your inten- 
tion, in the presence of the Most Holy Sacrament. 

Let us place prayer for the interests of holy 
Church, for the Pope, for Bishops, priests, monks 
and nuns, in the first place of all our intentions ; let 
us pray, united with the divine, invisible Priest, for 
the reign, the peace, and the extension of the 
Church, so that all, Jews and pagans, infidels, here- 
tics, and sinners may come into the Church, and 
with her adore and glorify her most adorable Spouse 
and her King in the Sacrament of His love and 
merciful presence. 

As soon as you enter a church, salute Jesus in the 
tabernacle in these words : 'Thou art Christ, the Son 
of the living God!'' Briefly, then, you can make 
four acts according to the four ends, (i) Jesus, I 
adore Thee with the angels and saints; (2) Jesus, I 
thank Thee for all Thy graces and blessings; (3) 
Jesus, I am sorry for having offended Thee, because 
Thou art infinitely good; (4) Jesus, my good God, 
I love Thee with my whole heart and above all 
things; I pray Thee to bless me, that, like Thee, I 
may be meek and humble of heart, and love Thee 
more and more. 

Redouble your visits to the Blessed Sacrament in 
the time of trial. 

At every visit ask for fidelity and perseverance ; 
fidelity to your vows, your Rules and resolutions ; 
fidelity to the duties of your state ; in a word, fidelity 



6o6 The Hour of Adoration. 

to your divine Spouse, so faithful in loving you and 
bearing with you. 

Have recourse to the divine Friend of the taber- 
nacle in every temptation, in every perplexity, in 
every trouble : to Him before any other friend. 

Let us observe strict silence in church and keep it 
so religiously as not to permit any one to break it 
in our presence or on our account. 

Let us take from the Holy Eucharist examples of 
the virtues of our state, and let us purify ourselves 
ceaselessly in honor of the Most Blessed Sacrament. 

Every day let us renew the promise to serve and 
honor divine Providence ; to do, as Jesus did, the 
will of the heavenly Father ; to be perfectly submis- 
sive to all His merciful dispensations. Let us make 
our morning communion and our daily visits to 
Jesus in the tabernacle the occasions for generous 
offerings, the means of a new gift, of an abandon- 
ment more and more sincere and perfect to the 
adorable providence of God. 



CHAPTER LVI. 

^be IRelatlon ot Devotion to tbe SacreD Ibeart anD 
to tbe Mceect) Sacrament* 

We invite the reader's special attention to the following 
treatise on the relation of devotion to the Sacred Heart 
and to the Blessed Sacrament, which was written by that 
illustrious son of St. Ignatius, the Rev. William O'Brien 
Pardow, of New York, and read by him at the Third 
Eucharistic Congress of the United States. It is a learned, 
logical, lucid, and forceful discussion of the subject; it is, 
moreover, devotional and helpful to practical piety. We 
have read much on the subject, but we have read nothing 
better than this paper, considering its comparative brevity 
and compactness. 

y^o be brief, as well as clear, in the development 
^^ of this beautiful and fertile subject, I shall 
examine first the essential characteristics of devo- 
tion to the Sacred Heart; secondly, the essential 
characteristics of devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment; and thirdly, I shall compare these various 
characteristics, and thus, I trust, bring out in bold 
relief the relation of the one devotion to the other. 
Let us begin by looking up a few definitions in our 
theological storehouses. 

I. To understand the exact nature of any devo- 
tion we must focus sharply on our mental screen its 
material object as distinguished from its formal 
object. 

The material object is that particular thing which 
is proposed for our worship. 

The formal object is the reason that moves us to 
have devotion to the material object. 

The material object may be twofold, the primary 
and the secondary. The primary material object is 



6o8 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

the entire person whom the devotion has in view. 
Honor, as St. Thomas says, is, strictly speaking, 
shown to the entire being. The secondary material 
object is something belonging to the person, and 
honored precisely because belonging to the person. 

As the material object may be twofold — the 
primary and the secondary — so may the formal ob- 
ject be twofold, the general and the special. The 
general formal object is that general reason which 
moves us to honor the material object; the special 
formal object is that particular reason which leads 
up to the honor paid the material object. 

Let me now clothe these dry theological bones 
with a little flesh, and add some color to the canvas. 
I suppose, for example, that some friend has just 
handed me a very valuable present. In thanksgiv- 
ing for the favor, I raise to my lips the hand of my 
benefactor. In this case the primary material ob- 
ject of my respect is the man, my friend and bene- 
factor; the secondary material object is his hand, 
the instrument of his benefaction. The general 
formal object is my friend's kindheartedness, which 
prompted the favor; the special formal object is the 
beautiful present which he has just given me. We 
would, however, be very far afield in thinking that 
these theological distinctions are mere scholastic 
terms and not real and popular truths. The most 
uneducated man, the least instructed in scholastic 
doctrines, will affirm, if questioned rightly, that in 
kissing a priest's hand, for example, he is honoring 
the priest on account of the dignity of his office, 
though he has never heard a word about the material 
or formal object of a devotion. This is human na- 
ture. To select another example. We honor a man 
who has written a great book, but we do not restrict 
our respect to his soul, the seat of his genius ; we 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 609 

honor the entire man — totum compositum — soul 
and body. The general material object in this case 
is the author himself; the general formal object, or 
the reason why we honor him, is his genius ; the 
special formal object is his ability as shown in this 
particular offspring of his genius. 

II. So much for the general principles which un- 
derlie all solid devotions. Let us now apply these 
principles to the two beautiful devotions of which 
there is question in this paper, the Sacred Heart and 
the Blessed Sacrament. 

The words "Sacred Heart" may be considered in 
two different ways, first according to their obvious 
and natural meaning; secondly, according to their 
metaphorical meaning. In the former way, the 
'^Sacred Heart" means that most noble portion of 
Our Lord's adorable body which furnished the 
arteries with their bright stream of blood, conveying 
life and vigor to all the other parts of the body. 
Besides having this physiological function, the 
heart, according to many scientists, is the seat of 
the sensible affections, and, leaving controverted 
points aside, taken in its strictly physical sense, it is 
certainly acted on in some very real and marvelous 
way by the emotions of the soul, hope, fear, and 
love. So much for the physical sense. 

Taken in the metaphorical sense, the ''Sacred 
Heart" means, and is the symbol of the love of our 
blessed Lord for all mankind and for each human 
being in particular. But to be quite exact, we must 
go further still, for actual Catholic piety by the 
words ''Sacred Heart" understands Our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, the God-man, loving 
us with the most personal and tender of loves. To 
be convinced of this, we have only to open ordinary 
books of devotion in which we shall read, passim, 



6io The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

that the ''Sacred Heart" appeared to Blessed 
Margaret Mary ; the author evidently meaning that 
Christ, whole and entire, appeared to this devout 
servant of God. And to settle the question forever, 
the Church herself uses and authorizes the touching 
invocation: ''Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on 
us,'' meaning, of course, by this, "O Lord and 
Saviour, showing us your loving Heart in so tender 
a way, have mercy on us." Thus, as ever, the ''lex 
orandi" is identical with the ''lex credendi/' 

Now, as there are two distinct natures in our 
blessed Saviour, so are there two distinct loves, and 
the Sacred Heart is the symbol of both loves, the 
human and the divine, the created and the uncreated. 

In referring, however, to the Sacred Heart as the 
symbol of Christ's love, we must not fancy for a mo- 
ment that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is merely 
a symbolical devotion. This would make the beau- 
tiful devotion very unreal, and would be very far 
from the truth. Let me illustrate my meaning by 
an example. When one reads carefully and prayer- 
fully Chapter XV. of St. John's Gospel, where Our 
Lord describes so realistically the relation of the 
vine to the branches, and then says so lovingly, "I 
am the Vine and you are the branches," one might 
very easily be led to have a real and tender devo- 
tion to our blessed Lord under the symbol of the 
vine. But in this case, the vine would be a mere 
symbol. The vine, however truly it represented His 
love for us, and His intimate union with our souls, 
could receive none of the adoration paid to Christ. 
The devotion to Our Lord under the symbol of the 
vine would be, as far as the vine is concerned, a 
purely symbolical devotion. But it is altogether dif- 
ferent with regard to the Sacred Heart ; for that very 
Heart of flesh, in its place within the sacred body of 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 6ii 

Christ, united to the divine Person of the ever 
Blessed Trinity, is the direct object of our worship, 
and, unUke the vine just referred to, is itself worthy 
of all adoration. 

Thus far we have examined the material object 
of the devotion to the Sacred Heart ; a word now 
about its formal object. 

The general formal object of the devotion to the 
Sacred Heart is the infinite dignity and excellence of 
the divine Person of our blessed Lord ; the special 
formal object is His most ardent love for mankind, 
and, in a very special manner, His unrequited love 
for mankind, that ardent love for which so very few 
make Him a return of love. The first reason, there- 
fore, of our devotion to the Sacred Heart is derived 
from the hypostatic union ; for the Heart of Jesus is 
not to be considered as separated from His human- 
ity, or from the divine Person, as if it wxre some in- 
animate object, but it is to be looked upon as inti- 
mately united to both. Hence as the Sacred Heart 
is adored in Christ and with Christ, so the general 
reason for the adoration of the Sacred Heart is the 
self-same as the reason for the adoration of the 
Second Person of the ever Blessed Trinity, become 
man for our sake. This general reason for adoration 
is not evidently restricted to the Heart of Jesus, His 
precious blood, His hands and His feet wounded for 
us, as the rest of His adorable body are all wor- 
thy of adoration by reason of the same hypo- 
static union. 

But there are two very special reasons or special 
formal objects for the adoration paid to the Sacred 
Heart, which is therefore adored not only because 
it belongs to the assumed human nature of Christ, 
but also because it is His own chosen symbol of His 
love for mankind, and of His love unrequited. Hap- 



6i2 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

pily, we are not obliged to go far to substantiate this 
part of our thesis. The clear statement concerning 
this formal object of the devotion is made by Christ 
Himself. ^'Behold/' said Our Lord to Blessed 
Margaret Mary in the beautiful little chapel at 
Paray-le-Monial, ''Behold the Heart that has so 
loved mankind as to spare nothing even to exhaust- 
ing and consuming itself in order to testify to them 
its love; and in return I receive from the greater 
part of mankind only ingratitude; by reason of their 
irreverence and their sacrilege, their coldness and 
their contempt. . . . For this reason I ask you that 
the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi 
be set apart for a special feast to honor My Heart, 
by communicating on that day and by making 
reparation to it for all the indignities that it has 
received.'' 

, HI. We have thus far glanced at the characteris- 
tics of the devotion to the Sacred Heart ; let us now 
apply the same method of study to the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

The general material object in the devotion to the 
Blessed Sacrament is Our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ Himself. This is clearly shown in the sub- 
lime office which we priests recite on the feast of 
Corpus Christi : ''Christum Re gem adoremus/' says 
the Invitatorhim, ''dominantem gentibus/' This is 
the general material object of the devotion and of 
the feast. The special material object is the body 
and blood of Christ under the sacramental veils: 
''Qui se mandxicantibiis dat spiritus pinguedinem^' 
continues the Invitatorium, This of course refers 
to the eating of His flesh, as Our Lord Himself says : 
"Qui mandticat Meam carnern et bibet Meum 
sangiiinem habet vitam ceternamf' Thus the Invi- 
tatorium oi the feast of Corpus Christi contains the 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 613 

entire material object of the devotion to the Blessed 
Sacrament, the general and the special. 

Now, the general formal object of the devotion is 
the infinite dignity of our blessed Lord and of His 
sacred body and precious blood in virtue of the 
hypostatic union. 

The special formal object is that the Blessed 
Sacrament, besides being the real presence, is also 
a most loving memorial of the Passion of Our Lord 
and of the Last Supper, when Jesus Christ broke 
the bread and said: ''This is My body which is de- 
livered up for you. Do this for a remembrance of 
Me ;" and taking the chalice He exclaimed : 'This 
is My blood of the New Testament, which shall be 
shed unto the remission of sin." ''Qua nocte trade- 
batur/' says St. Paul. ''Pridie quam pateretur'' 
says the priest offering up the same Holy Sacrifice. 

IV. Having now focused our ideas concerning 
the material and the formal object of both devotions, 
we are in a position to define clearly the dogmatic 
and theological relation of the one to the other. 

The general material object is the very same in 
both devotions, viz., the Second Person of the ever 
Adorable Trinity become man for our sake. 

The general formal object is the same in both de- 
votions, viz., the infinite excellence and dignity of 
Jesus Christ, true God and true man. 

This identity of the general material and formal 
objects in two distinct devotions will not surprise 
any student of theology. He knows full well that it 
is by the special material or formal objects that the 
various devotions of the Church are differentiated. 
Thus the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is not 
the devotion to the most precious blood, nor is it the 
devotion to the five wounds, though the devotion to 
the Blessed Sacrament honors directly the body of 



6i4 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

Christ which contains the precious blood and which 
was wounded for our iniquities. So the devotion to 
the Sacred Heart is altogether distinct from the 
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, because the 
special material and formal objects are different. As 
our Most Reverend Archbishop stated so clearly in 
his letter to the clergy inviting them to this grand 
Eucharistic Congress : ''The Church is ever bringing 
forth under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost article 
after article of her majestic creed, and, hand in hand 
with this developrnent of doctrine, rise solemn and 
precious devotions among her faithful children.'' 

Once more the ''lex credendi'' and the ''lex 
orandi'' are in closest union; and the Church, like 
the faithful steward of the Gospel, "profert de 
thesauro site nova et Vetera/' This specialization of 
the various devotions in the Church, this bringing 
home to the people, with more realism, the full 
teaching of the New Testament, has been the lov- 
ing occupation of the Spouse of Christ ever since 
the glorious day that beheld the great event of all 
time and of eternity, "Et Verbum caro factum est/' 

The devotion to the holy name of Jesus, to the 
five wounds, to the precious blood, to the Sacred 
Heart, to the Blessed Sacrament, all tend directly to 
our blessed Saviour in person : ''Where the body is, 
there the eagles are gathered together ;" but each of 
the devotions has a special tone, color, or charac- 
teristic of its own. In the devotion to the Sacred 
Heart, the adorable Heart of Jesus is brought be- 
fore the faithful in a special way, without any refer- 
ence to the rest of Our Lord's sacred body. In the 
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the entire body 
of Our Lord is proposed for veneration under the 
sacramental species, without any special reference to 
His Heart. The devotion to the Sacred Heart, as 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 615 

Our Lord Himself expressly declares, brings out in 
bold relief the base ingratitude of men, and leads the 
faithful into the wide field of reparation, which the 
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament as such does not 
do. 

If from the very night of the Last Supper down 
to our own day, every single soul that approached 
the holy table had been all aglow, even with the 
ardor of the seraphs that surround the throne of 
God, if every communicant had received our blessed 
Lord into a tabernacle as well prepared to welcome 
the divine Guest as was the cenacle itself — 
''Ccenaciiliiin grande stratum'' — if every verse of 
the beautiful psalm, '^Laudate Domimim de coelis'' 
had been a living, breathing reality, from the very 
night before He died until now : '^Reges terrce et 
omnes popitii; principes et omnes jiidices terrcE 
jiivenes et virgines, seizes cum jtmioribus laudent 
nomen Domini'' — if all this, I say, had been fully 
realized in the reverence shown to the hidden God 
of our tabernacle, the devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment would indeed still exist in all its grandeur : 
''Quantum potes tantuni aude, quia major onini 
laude, nee laudare sufUcisf' but the devotion to the 
Sacred Heart understood in all its fulness, as pro- 
posed by Christ Himself, would have disappeared ; 
there would be no sacrileges, no ingratitude, no 
coldness, no indifference to make reparation for. 

Again, should the devout communicant confine 
himself strictl}^ to the devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, he might seem to satisfy the claims of the 
Prisoner on our altars if after holy communion he 
thanked our divine Saviour with his whole heart 
for the undeserved favor of His visit, promising un- 
dying fidelity, and then left the church w^ith grateful 
soul to go about his ordinary occupations. But the 



6i6 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

devotion to the Sacred Heart tells the devout com- 
municant that he must widen his mental vision until 
his horizon has become as extended as that of Jesus 
Christ Himself; the devotion to the Sacred Heart 
tells the devout communicant that for one who ap- 
proaches the holy table there are a thousand who 
keep away, and for one who approaches with the 
inflamed dispositions that our blessed Lord has a 
right to expect there are ten thousand who ap- 
proach with hearts as cold as ice ; the devotion to 
the Sacred Heart tells the devout communicant of 
the ''other sheep/' ''alias oves habeo/' and rouses the 
soul to do all in its power to bring them, too, to taste 
and see how sweet the Lord is in the Sacrament of 
His love. The devotion to the Sacred Heart trans- 
forms the devout communicant into an apostle — an 
apostle of prayer and of action. ''Ignem veni rnittere 
in terram/' it hears the Heart of Jesus say, ''et 
quid volo nisi ut accendatnrf" The devotion to the 
Sacred Heart tells the devout communicant that the 
King has made a great supper; that the supper in- 
deed is ready, but that the invited guests have re- 
fused to come ; the devotion to the Sacred Heart 
sends forth the devout communicant into the high- 
ways and byways, with the ''Compelle intrare' 
ringing in his ears, and he will not be satisfied until 
the ardent desire of the King be fully accomplished, 
''that My house may be filled." 

V. We have thus far examined the dogmatic and 
theological relation of the two devotions ; the sub- 
ject now calls for a few words about what I may de- 
scribe as their polemic and historical relation. 

The devotion to the Blessed Sacrament culmi- 
nated in the establishment of the glorious feast of 
Corpus Christi, in the thirteenth century ; but any 
one who witnessed the celebration of this great 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 617 

solemnity in any city of Catholic Europe — when Eu- 
rope was Catholic — will hardly believe that this 
most beautiful and consoling feast met at the out- 
set with the bitterest sort of opposition. In this re- 
gard, the relation of the devotion to the' Blessed 
Sacrament and to the Sacred Heart is that of iden- 
tity; both devotions, as expressed in their special 
feast days, won their way to the place they now oc- 
cupy in the hearts of the faithful only after a fierce 
and protracted struggle. In the thirteenth century 
our blessed Lord deigned to reveal to an unknown 
Religious of Belgium His will that a special feast 
should be established in honor of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. Juliana Corneliensis, as she is called in the 
breviary, for twenty years delayed the execution of 
Christ's request. At last she spoke. But no sooner 
was it noised abroad that a new feast was being 
thought of in honor of the Real Presence than op- 
position and violent protests arose on all sides. The 
critics who opposed the new celebration were not 
Protestants, neither were they unbelievers, but 
Catholics, well-meaning men, no doubt, ''sed non 
secundum scientiam/' They had, too, what sounded 
like good reasons for their criticism. ''All novelties 
in religion,'' they said, "are dangerous. We are 
neither more enlightened nor more pious than our 
forefathers. Why, then, should not what satisfied 
them for the honor of God and their own sanctifica- 
tion also satisfy us?" "Moreover," they argued, 
"the proposed festival is useless ; it is already cele- 
brated on Holy Thursday ; and, besides, is not every 
day, by the offering of the holy sacrifice of the Mass, 
a feast of the Blessed Sacrament?" "Furthermore, 
by calling attention to one day in the year as a feast 
of the Real Presence, the Church would diminish the 
devotion of the people to the daily and weekly cele- 



6i8 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart, 

bration of the Mass, and besides, this feast of Cor- 
pus Christi — the body of Christ — suggests to the 
mind the flesh alone, which is simply a material ob- 
ject. By the institution of a special feast for the 
body of Christ, Christ would be divided in the 
people's worship. Our Lord is whole and entire in 
the Blessed Sacrament/' they said, ''and this separa- 
tion would only beget confusion in the minds of the 
simple faithful/' Thus spoke, nearly seven hundred 
years ago, some nervous theologians afraid of con- 
fusing the minds of the simple faithful; but the 
minds of the simple faithful are not always so easily 
confused as the developed intelligence of some 
theologians, and the great solemnity of Corpus 
Christi, with its glorious liturgy, its snow-white 
arches and its clouds of sweet incense, began its 
triumphal march adown the ages, to the mighty 
strengthening of the faith and hope and love of all 
the Church's children. The race of nervous theo- 
logians did not die out with the thirteenth century, 
and we often come across men who in their love for 
the divine Guest of our altars show signs of fear 
where there is no cause for fear. The devotion to 
the Sacred Heart broadens out our theology, and 
tells us that He who loved to call Himself the ''Son 
of man'' has many very dear friends among the sons 
of men ; and that great honors paid to them only 
emphasize the hold that the Blessed Sacrament had 
on their lives, according to Our Lord's own words, 
in St. John's Gospel : "He that eateth Me, the same 
also shall live by Me" (John vi. 58). 

True, all of us who have had the happiness of 
kneeling at the grotto of Lourdes might, had we 
rubbed strenuously our theological spectacles, have 
counted more lighted tapers and far larger lighted 
tapers burning there than we had counted in the 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 619 

magnificent basilica above, around the Blessed 
Sacrament. This, too, I am sure of, that even with- 
out rubbing our spectacles at all, we could easily 
have counted a far greater number of old sticks and 
crutches, and of dazzling exvotos, in the rustic 
grotto of the Mother than in the superb palace of her 
divine Son ; and those who have seen some of the 
miracles of Lourdes know that their place of predi- 
lection is the grotto on the banks of the river Gave. 

What does all this mean, but that it is the divine 
King's way of honoring His immaculate Mother? 
And as the Scripture says: ''Thus shall be honored 
whom the King hath a mind to honor" (Esther vi. 
9). The words spoken by Our Lord Himself will 
ever be verified in His faithful servants and hand- 
maids : ''Amen, amen, I say to you, he that believeth 
in Me, the works that I do, -he also shall do; and 
greater than these shall he do" (John xiv. 12). 

We theologians are apt to forget that many a 
sinner kneeling at the grotto of our immaculate 
Mother has been roused by the touching signs of 
devotion ever manifested there, who else had never 
had the heart to approach and receive within his 
breast the King of kings, and Lord of lords, in the 
great basilica that looks down upon the murmuring 
waters of the Gave. 

True, there may be at times more tapers burning 
at the shrine of some saint than before the Blessed 
Sacrament, but we must remember that the lights 
consu'^iing themselves before the Blessed Sacrament 
are placed there officially, by the Church, and thus 
every one of them is aglow with all the Church's 
faith, and burns with ten thousand candle power. 
But each of the little tapers burning before some 
special statue or shrine is put there only by one 
trembling hand and represents but one individual 



620 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

soul. The glimmering light may be but too true an 
image of the flickering faith within the tempted, 
tortured, or despairing heart of the one who placed 
it there. Of the God of our tabernacle it was said : 
''He would not quench the smoking flax." The 
lights burning before the statue of St. Anthony or of 
St. Anne, as those that brighten the grotto of 
Lourdes, have, we may be very sure, led many a 
soul straight to the Blessed Sacrament. Let us not, 
therefore, with ill-advised zeal blow out the lighted 
tapers before the shrine of any of the saints of God, 
lest in so doing we cause to flicker even the stately 
sentinel lights, on the great altar, that keep their 
watch before the King! 

VL Having discussed, however imperfectly, the 
theological or dogmatic relation between devotion 
to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Sacrament, 
having touched on their historical or polemical re- 
lation, it remains for me to say a word about what 
I may call their moral or ascetical relation, and then 
my pleasing task will be finished. 

As Our Lord, appearing to Blessed Margaret 
Mary, stated that He desired a special day, of His 
own choice, to be set aside in honor of the Sacred 
Heart, the Friday after the octave of the Blessed 
Sacrament, and that on that day He wished the 
faithful to be urged to make fervent communions 
of reparation, it is evident that the devotion to the 
Blessed Sacrament really led up to the devotion to 
the Sacred Heart; reparation was to be made for 
the coldness and ingratitude of mankind, especially 
as shown in their want of love for the Holy Eucha- 
rist. So now, in return, the devotion to the Sacred 
Heart leads many a soul back to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, and paves the way for firm belief in the Real 
Presence. I explain my meaning. 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 621 

The objections raised four or five hundred years 
ago by so-called rationalists against belief in the 
Real Presence were taken mostly from the nature of 
matter and of quantity; from the concept of sub- 
stance and of accident ; but these are not the difficul- 
ties which keep men away from the holy table now- 
adays. With the wonderful discoveries of modern 
and especially recent science staring them in the 
face, with an electric wire carrying four distinct 
messages at one and the same time, without con- 
fusion or interference ; with the astounding proper- 
ties of radium and radio-active bodies which appar- 
ently diffuse energy without diminution of power; 
with these, I say, and many other equally startling 
facts on all sides of us, showing what can be done 
with matter still remaining matter, the thinking 
men and women of our day can only say : ''What do 
we know about substance or about the essential 
properties of bodies?" The difficulties against the 
Blessed Sacrament are not now those of Caphar- 
naum, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?'' 
And yet,>for all that, so many of the men of our day 
do not come any nearer to Him, that they may have 
life and may have it more abundantly. What, then, 
is the difficulty? The real difficulty in our day is 
not how can the body of Christ be contained whole 
and entire in a small particle of what has all the 
appearances of bread, but it is, how can the Heart 
of Jesus contain so intense a love for each one of 
us as to work such wonders in our behalf? The 
obstacle then is to be found in the difficulty of real- 
izing the ardent, personal love of Our Lord and 
Saviour for each and every human being. The 
stumbling-block is no longer in the cenacle, where 
our blessed Lord took into His holy hand the bread, 
and said : This is My body ; but the stumbling-block 



622 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

is in the cave of Bethlehem, where the second Per- 
son of the Blessed Trinity took to Himself, from 
a human Mother, the flesh of our flesh and the bone 
of our bone. It is the Incarnation that staggers, 
not the Last Supper. Let the men and women of 
our day onCe admit the Incarnation, with all its per- 
sonal love, and the Real Presence follows as clearly 
as the light of the noon-day sun follows the dawn- 
light that glimmers in the eastern sky. 

Our gloriously reigning Pontiff, who has taken 
so lively an interest in this great Eucharistic Con- 
gress of the L^nited States, who, in his ardent devo- 
tion to the Blessed Sacrament, has insisted that at 
the holy sacrifice of the Mass the attention of our 
people shall be centered in the Real Presence at the 
altar, and not in the organ loft; who has decreed 
that church music shall ever be prayer and not a 
concert, Pius X., I say, gave to the world the key- 
note of his reign, when, on his accession to the 
Pontifical throne, he declared that it would be the 
aim of all his prayers and all his labors, ''Restaurare 
omnia in Christo/' Now, to bring back the world 
to Christ, we must preach in season and out of 
season, what the devotion to the Sacred Heart in- 
sists on so much — His personal love for every mem- 
ber of the human race. Useless for the poor re- 
pentant sinner to give as an excuse for not ap- 
proaching the holy table and receiving the precious 
body and blood of Jesus Christ, that, even with all 
his sorrow for sin, he is still so unworthy; the de- 
votion to the Sacred Heart is right by his side to 
encourage him and to say: *'You do not receive 
communion because you are worthy; but because 
our blessed Lord loves you so much as to have be- 
come man for your sake ; He begs of you to come to 
Him at the holv table even as He came to you in 



The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 623 

the cave of Bethlehem : 'Dilexit me et tradidit seme- 
tipsum pro me' '" must the sinner say, even as the 
great St. Paul said it. Neither are the effects pro- 
duced by the devotion to the Sacred Heart re- 
stricted to the individual. Statesmen and legis- 
lators are glancing uneasily at the social and polit- 
ical horizon of the opening twentieth century ; low- 
ering clouds are assuming threatening proportions ; 
the unrest among the working masses, the luxury 
among the leisured classes ; all these give thinking 
men matter for serious reflection. Human remedies 
of all kinds are being thought out ; but no sooner 
is one tried than it is discarded as useless and re- 
placed by another just as useless. Is there, then, 
no remedy? ''Is there no balm in Galaad, and is 
there no physician there? Why, then, are not the 
wounds of My people healed?" Yes, there is one 
Balm and one Physician, and only one : ''Restaiirare 
omnia in Christo'': the Blessed Sacrament, the di- 
vine Balm, the Sacred Heart, the divine Physician. 
The reception of holy communion by the people, 
not simply once a year as an obligation binding un- 
der pain of sin, not simply four times a year, but 
frequently as an act of personal reparation to our 
true Friend, whose love is so unrequited : behold the 
remedy for all our social, political, and moral evils. 
I am only quoting from the beautiful letter of the 
Archbishops of this country, who in 1874 thus 
wrote to His Holiness Pope Pius IX.: "We con- 
sider it no little part of our pastoral duty to propa- 
gate most diligently and impress most deeply on the 
hearts of the faithful the devotion to the Sacred 
Heart — a devotion which, not without reason, we 
judge to have been divinely revealed in these evil 
days of the Church, as an antidote against the 
poison of error and as an impenetrable shield w^ith 



624 The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

which the faithful may fight without danger the 
battle now raging." 

It is time to conclude. Our Lord and Saviour, 
choosing, Himself, the day after the octave of Cor- 
pus Christi for the feast of the Sacred Heart, seems 
to say to each one of us : ''Although what I have 
done for the soul in the Sacrament of the altar is so 
great a proof of My love, yet even after all this 
the ocean of My love is still inexhaustible. I can 
only point to My Heart and say : 

''Behold the Heart that has so loved mankind. 
What I have thus far accomplished is little com- 
pared to what I am still prepared to do, if you will 
only love Me in return: 'Prcehe, Uli mi, cor tuum 
Mihi! All that I have thus far done is only the 
manifestation of My love as it can be shown in this 
valley of tears, in this land of exile ; all these gran- 
deurs are only the frescoes on your prison walls. 
Other and boundless proofs of My love still remain, 
but they can be given only in the Father's house. 
'Non potestis portare modo/ 'Sed quando venerit 
id quod perfectum est, tunc evacuabitur quod ex 
parte est.' "' 

This great Eucharistic Congress is a triumphant 
demonstration to the world of our lively and loving 
faith in the Adorable Sacrament of the altar, and a 
sure presage that the prayer which goes up from 
all our hearts, "Thy Eucharistic kingdom come !'' 
will draw down countless graces upon our glorious 
republic, will lead hundreds of our fellow-country- 
men on and on, up to the true light of faith, by 
which we see indeed dimly, until at length faith 
shall be swallowed up in vision, the veils that now 
hide our Eucharistic King shall be rent in twain, 
and we shall be like Him because we shall see Him 
as He is. 



CHAPTER LVII. 

Zbc %ovc of tbe SacreD l)eart tor tbe Btetnal 

jfatber*— Cbe Bpoatleeblp ot prai^er,— ^be 

XEwotolD Bevotlon to tbe Sacred Dearth 

'T^. ove! Is there a word in any language that 
f^-^ awakens such echoes in the human heart as 
that short word — love? It vibrates through every 
faculty of the soul of man, reviving in the memory 
forms and reminiscences that had been forgotten 
long since ; it illuminates the intellect with thoughts 
unnumbered, and lights up in the will fires that 
were well-nigh extinguished. It is like a torrent 
carrying everything away with it in its mighty cur- 
rent, which nothing can resist until it has attained 
its term. 

The whole history of the human race might be 
summed up in the revelation of each man's love. 
Is there among us one who does not feel in the 
depth of his soul that his loA^e is the pivot around 
which revolve all his desires and his appreciations, 
all his sympathies and his aspirations, his joys, as 
likewise his sorrows — in short, his happiness or his 
misery ? Love, then, may be said to be the whole of 
man. It may be, as it is destined to be, his salva- 
tion ; it may be, as alas ! too frequently it is, his de- 
struction, but it is ever the great question of love 
that decides his happiness, both in this life and in 
eternity. "My love is my weight," says St. Augus- 
tine; that is to say, that we are borne upward or 
downward, straightforward or out of our path, 
just as we are drawn by the force of our love, which 
is the impelling motive of everything within us. 



626 The Love of the Sacred Heart. 

And a greater doctor than St. Augustine — the Mas- 
ter of all the doctors and the Teacher of the evan- 
gelists — had long before told us that ' 'where thy 
treasure is, there is thy heart also'' (Matt. vi. 21). 

We are — to use the sweet language of Our Lord 
Himself — ''the children of the kingdom;'' of that 
holy kingdom wherein love has its law and its last 
end. If it follows its law, it will infallibly attain 
its end; all things will be in order, because charity, 
that queen of virtues, governing all the rest, will be 
in orde-r within us (Cant. ii. 4), and God will find 
us on the last day "conformable to the image of His 
Son," and consequently we shall be numbered 
among the predestinate (Rom. viii. 29). 

Now where shall we go in order to learn this di- 
vine law regarding love, and to ascertain its su- 
preme object? True, we have the precept delivered 
of old to the ancient people of God, which precept 
will be heard again on the sacred lips of the In- 
carnate Word (Mark xii. 30), but sweet as is the 
command to love the Lord our God, sweeter far will 
it be, and far more powerful over the heart of man, 
to learn of the human Heart of God Himself the 
character of that love. 

Were we to draw out all that might be said con- 
cerning the subject before us, we should far exceed 
the humble scope and the purpose of the present 
work. The love of the human Heart of Jesus for 
the Eternal Father! Eternity will reveal to us the 
shoreless, fathomless ocean those words convey, 
and the marvelous beauties contained in its depths. 

But hidden as was the life of the Heart of Jesus 
with His Father, it is given us even here below to 
catch more than glimpses of that love which was, 
if we may dare to say so, as the ruling passion of 
His soul. In His formal discourses, as in the spon- 



The Love of the Sacred Heart. 627 

taneous expressions that flowed from His lips sent 
thither by ''the abundance of His Heart/' we dis- 
cover the supreme motive of that love which 
prompted the Son of God to take human flesh, to 
borrow a human heart, and to come down to dwell 
among us. Far away in the eternal hills we seem 
to hear the accents of the Only-Begotten of the 
Father, the everlasting Word. ''One Heart at least 
shall love Thee, one soul at least shall adore Thee 
with a love that will be worthy of Thee, and since 
man, the work of Thy hands, has by sin betrayed 
Thee, one Man shall repair Thy wrongs and win 
back to Thee Thy creation. Behold, I come that I 
should do Thy will" (Ps. xxxix. 8, 9). Had God 
never been outraged by sin there would still have 
been an inadequacy of love, of worship, of religion, 
toward Him, for how could what is finite render 
w^hat is due to the Infinite ? The love of the Sacred 
Heart adequately supplies all this, and to do so is 
its primary office upon earth, its noblest and most 
glorious prerogative. 

Now do we not see that in this the Sacred Heart 
becomes at once our great Exemplar, and that our 
love for that Heart will necessarily lead us to the 
love of the Eternal Father? 

We have just struck on the rock upon which 
genuine devotion to the Sacred Heart and an 
earnest participation in its apostleship are based. 
Shall we be forgiven if we say that, perhaps, the 
love of Jesus for the Father enters too superficially 
into our reflections concerning the Sacred Heart as 
well as into our practical devotion to it? 

St. Augustine, desiring to elucidate certain pro- 
found dogmas hard to be comprehended by the hu- 
man intellect, exclaims : ''Attend to your hearts," 
and then, by a clear analogy, he brings down to our 



628 The Love of the Sacred Heart. 

compass the great truths he is desirous of teaching. 
The same method may well be employed in the sub- 
ject that occupies us at present, more especially as 
it. is a question of love, the seat of which is in the 
heart. Who among us has not experienced that all 
that is dear to one we love becomes for his sake 
likewise dear to us? Such is the tendenc}^ — such 
the power of love. Now, something altogether 
analogous takes place in reference to the love we 
bear our blessed Lord. We assimilate to ourselves 
the affections of His Heart, involuntarily, grad- 
ually, and as it were unconsciously observing in our 
own a like order, and thus it is that our love is in- 
terpreted, not only by devotion to the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus, but also by union with that Heart in its 
most intimate sentiments and desires. 

Now, there was not a word that Our Lord ut- 
tered during His pilgrim life on earth, not an ac- 
tion that He performed, not a suffering to which 
He submitted, that does not reveal the master-love 
of His all-holy soul, and which was not destined to 
draw the hearts of men to a deeper knowledge and 
consequently a stronger love of His Eternal Father. 

In the first year of His public ministry, we hear 
Him, in the vSermon on the Mount, putting forth 
the glory of their heavenly Father as the rightful 
motive prompting men to the exercise of good 
works, exhorting them so to act that they may be 
the children of their Father who is in heaven, and 
to make the perfection of that Father the model of 
their own. If He threatens, it is with the loss of 
the reward that heavenly Father would give them ; 
it is the Father's eye beholding their secret prayer 
and alms-deeds with which they are to be content. 
It is, again, their Father who knows what is need- 
ful for them, even before they pray to Him. In a 



The Love of the Sacred Heart. 629 

word, throughout the whole of His discourse we 
feel we are listening to One who has before His 
mind and in His Heart one all-absorbing Object, 
with the love of whom He desires before all things 
to inspire His hearers. Later on, we hear Him de- 
claring that they who shall do the will of His 
Father who is in heaven will be regarded by Him 
as His "brother and sister and mother" (Matt. xii. 
50). See the connection — in proportion to our love 
of His Father will be the love of Jesus for us. 
Again, it is the character of the Father and His 
yearning love for men that are shadowed forth in 
the parables, and in His familiar conversations with 
His disciples the Father's name was ever on His 
lips. So ravishing had been His utterances regard- 
ing Him at the discourse after the Last Supper, 
that Philip, out of himself, as it were, with the love- 
liness of the Being brought before his mental vision, 
broke forth in those memorable words : "Lord, 
show us the Father, and it is enough.'' 

As time pressed on, and still the hearts of many 
remained closed and hardened. Our Lord appeared 
like one whose case w^as growing desperate, and 
who grasped at every occasion, in season and out of 
season, in which to bring before men the claims of 
His heavenly Father. Thus it is we hear Him, 
when the end was drawing near, speaking openly, 
to the Pharisees and the rulers of the people, of His 
Father as their God. He seems to hide Himself 
in His oneness with the Father, and to retire into 
the dazzling splendor of that Father's glory : "My 
glory is nothing — it is My Father that glorifieth 
Me"' (John viii. 54). Finally, it is the Father's 
love that is the supreme reward promised to such 
as love the Son : "If any man love Me, he shall be 
loved by the Father;" as if He would say: Noth- 



630 The Love of the Sacred Heart. 

ing greater or more precious can I promise you as 
a recompense for your love of Me : for to be loved 
by My Father consummates and crowns all. 

He declared the Father's will to be His own nour- 
ishment, which meant that it was so precious to 
Him that it held to Him the place of material food 
and of every other thing, while the first recorded 
word spoken by Our Lord is of His Father, as is 
likewise the last He breathed forth upon the cross 
(Luke ii. 49; xxiii. 46). 

Has not enough been said for our purpose? We 
sought for a teacher who, while he would instruct 
us in the great science of divine love, would at the 
same time allure our hearts by the loveliness of the 
form in which his lessons would be clothed. Such 
has been given to us. Our eyes have seen our 
Teacher, and our ears have heard His words ad- 
monishing us (Is. XXX. 20, 21), and He has 
drawn us by the cords of Adam and by the bonds of 
love (Osee xi. 4). 

But if the Heart of Jesus attracts us to the 
Father, and becomes to us the model of our love for 
Him, inducing us to love, adore, and serve Him in 
every possible way in union with that Heart, it like- 
wise sets before us by its own example the charac- 
ters of reparation, together with that love of souls 
which naturally results from it, and both of which 
are the spontaneous outcome of the purest love of 
God. 

The wrongs of an outraged parent or friend are 
repaired in a twofold manner : first, by sympathy 
and an increase of tenderness on the part of the 
person oflfering the reparation, whether it be for 
his own failing^s or for those of others ; secondly, if 
it be the latter case, by leading back the oflfenders 
to sentiments of sorrow for the wound they have 



The Love of the Sacred Heart. 631 

inflicted. That sorrow will be the source of a more 
devoted love. Of all this, Our Lord is our supreme 
Exem.plar. He was the Repairer by excellence of 
all His Father's wrongs. He repaired them by His 
love, by His sorrow for sin, by the sufferings He 
voluntarily endured for it, by His adoration, and 
by His whole life. He repaired them also by lead- 
ing back souls to His Father, by making Him 
known to men, by extending His kingdom upon 
earth. 

Now, this is what the Heart of Jesus asks of us. 
He asks us to unite with Him in thus repairing His 
Father's outraged glory. He asks us to repair in 
like manner the personal wrongs which He Himself 
received during His mortal life, and the ingratitude 
with which His love has ever been and still is re- 
paid by the greater part of Christians. The imita- 
tion, then, of the Sacred Heart in its love of the 
Eternal Father, forms the very basis of the true 
spirit of our Apostleship. "Learn of Me," Our 
Lord may say, ''how to love My heavenly Father, 
and in what manner to repair His glory, and thereby 
learn of Me the love and reparation that My Heart 
yearns to receive from you itself.'' 

2ri)e ^postlesftfp of IBrajer tt)e JSerpetuatlon of t|)e 5B2^otfe of 
Vcjz Jtncarnation. 

Our Lord one day said to the Jews these remark- 
able words : 'T came down from heaven to do the 
will of Him that sent Me. Now this is the will of 
the Father who sent Me; that of all that He hath 
given Me, I should lose nothing, . . . that every 
one Vv^ho seeth the Son, and believeth in Him, may 
have life everlasting" (John vi. 38-40). In these 
words Our Lord distinctly makes known the pur- 



6s2 The Love of the Sacred Heart. 

pose of His Incarnation. He came down from 
heaven, He says, to do His Father's will, and then 
He goes on to state in what that all-holy will con- 
sists. He willed that of all that He had given to 
His only Son for His heritage — all that vast hu- 
manity, all the nations and peoples and tribes of the 
earth — He should lose nothing; and further, that 
every one who sees the Son — the image of the 
Father — and believes in Him, may be saved. To 
bring this about, the Son and Our Lord came upon 
earth, toiled, suffered, and died. 

But His passible life being ended, Jesus, our 
Head, having ascended into heaven, willed to leave 
on earth members who should perpetuate His work 
until the end of time, and by the same means that 
He had Himself employed when dwelling among 
us. We know how He performed His work; how 
He accomplished His Father's will. The greater 
part of His thirty-three years was spent in prayer. 
From the first moment of His Incarnation He 
prayed. During His infancy and childhood, when, 
having submitted Himself to the ordinary condi- 
tions of that early stage of life, He could perform 
no. external work. He prayed. The eighteen years 
of His hidden life at Nazareth, dating from the 
time when He was found in the Temple convers- 
ing with the doctors, w^ere passed in the hidden 
apostolate of prayer, and it was by this way only 
that, at that period of His life, He advanced His 
''Father's business," which, while yet a child in 
years, He had declared was to Him an imperative 
preoccupation. 'T must be about My Father's 
business" (Luke ii. 49). When He passed to His 
public life, we find Him again retiring into the 
mountains and spending His nights in secret con- 
verse with His Father after His days of toil, and 



The Love of the Sacred Heart. 633 

at length when all was finished, and the hour of His 
supreme sacrifice had arrived, He still prayed upon 
His cross. 

And various as were its forms, innumerable as 
were its objects, if we regard them in detail, the 
one great unending prayer of Jesus which sumxmed 
up all within itself was this : that of all that His 
Father had given Him for an inheritance He might 
lose nothing. Such is the very essence of that 
prayer so universal in its extent, so apostolic in its 
character, so ardent in its zeal, that ascended with- 
out ceasing from the Sacred Heart to the bosom of 
the Father. 

To the end expressed in that prayer, likewise 
tended all that Our Lord wrought on earth. This 
was the object of His labors and fatigues, — this 
the aim of all His preaching and miracles, this the 
cause of His lifelong sacrifice, the consummation 
of which was upon Calvary. 

Now, when we speak of union with the "Heart of 
Jesus, we mean union with that Heart in its prayers, 
in its toils, in its sacrifice for the glory of Him 
whom Our Lord specially delighted to make known 
to us as our common Father, "My Father and your 
Father'' (John xx. 17). This union of our hearts 
with the Heart of Jesus is peculiarly precious to 
Him, not only because it is a testimony of our love 
for Himself personally, but likewise because it 
glorifies the Father by carrying on, as it were, the 
great work of the Incarnation, the end of which is, 
as has been already seen by Our Lord's own words, 
the accomplishment of His Father's will. *'This is 
the will of My Father, that of all He hath given Me, 
I should lose nothing." 

As then our apostleship has for its main object to 
draw us to that union and to perfect us therein, it 



634 ^^^^ Love of the Sacred Heart. 

may be said with truth that it is a most real per- 
petuation of the work of the Incarnation, inasmuch 
as the members continue that work which their 
Head had commenced. And this explains what 
Our Lord said to His disciples, that it is ''one that 
soweth and another that reapeth/' He was the di- 
vine Sower, but He expired, sighing out the expres- 
sion of His yet unsatisfied thirst for the gathering 
in of His harvest. We have entered into His la- 
bors, to continue His work, then to reap with Him 
the harvest of souls, that so both the Sower and 
the reapers may rejoice together at the great har- 
vest-home above in the kingdom of the Father 
(John iv. 36-38). 

Assuredly, if we reflect a Httle upon the honor 
and the privilege that Our Lord has conferred upon 
us in associating us to so noble a work, we should 
hardly waste our thoughts and time and energies, 
as it is to be feared too many among us do, upon 
the trifles that surround us ; we should not, if we 
were penetrated with the thought of that great mis- 
sion to which each one of us, in his measure, is 
called, suffer our hearts and minds to be deterred 
by them from their legitimate preoccupation with 
the interests of God's glory. We should rather be 
induced to miake of all that came in our way a mat- 
ter of self-sacrifice in union with the sacrifice of 
Our Lord, for the intention for which He became 
Incarnate, toiled, and died. 

As friends of the Sacred Heart, and associates of 
its holy League of Prayer, this should be our one 
great aim and dominant solicitude : that of all that 
His Father has given Him for His inheritance. Our 
Lord shall lose nothing — not one of the souls, if that 
might be, for whom He shed His blood ; that none 
of His priests should ever fall from the sublime per- 



The Love of the Sacred Heart. 635 

fection of their state, nor any of those consecrated 
to Him, in whatever way it may be, degenerate from 
their vocation; that the nations already possessing 
the true faith may never lose it, and that those as 
yet sitting in the darkness of heathendom may be 
evangelized, so that no tribe or people or nation 
may be excluded from the royal inheritance of the 
Son of God, but that all may be brought to the 
knowledge and love of His holy name. 

This is our work which should ever be ''before 
us," that is to say, before the "illuminated eyes of 
the heart'' (Eph. i. 18), thus continually extending 
our horizon and animating us to greater devoted- 
ness to the cause of God, to the interests of Jesus 
Christ. This is, indeed, to enter into and fulfil the 
dearest wish of the Heart of Jesus, who desires to 
find cooperators upon earth in the great work for 
which He lived and died; souls having one mind 
with Him (i Cor. ii. 16), and who regard all else 
as merely subservient to that of hastening the com- 
ing of the kingdom. To such as these, ''Adveniat 
regnum tuum'' will be the expression of their en- 
tire lives. The substance of those words and the 
thirst for their accomplishment will mingle with all 
their thoughts and accompany them in all their ac- 
tions, lending to them an apostolic intention and a 
supernatural energy. 

This is why we have said that the apostleship of 
the Sacred Heart is a perpetuation of the work of 
the Incarnation, and being so, to share in that 
apostleship is one of the noblest aspirations, the 
most solid happiness, and the most sanctifying 
privilege that we can possess here below. 



636 The Love of the Sacred Heart. 

Jiebotion to t!)e Sacretr 3^mxt is ^Thjofolti j^eparatorg anlJ 

Apostolic* 

We have, in the first place, seen that the 
master-love of the Sacred Heart, if we may so 
speak, is love of the Eternal Father, and further, 
that from that love, as from a parent source, flows 
a double torrent of desire both tending to the same 
term. That double outpouring issuing from the 
very depths of the Heart of Jesus never separates, 
never divides. It. flows on like two streams, both 
emanating from the same fountain-head, mingling 
their rapid currents until they are swallowed up in 
the ocean. It will have been seen that the thirst to 
repair the outraged glory of God His Father, and 
zeal to bring the whole world to His knowledge and 
love, were the twofold yet inseparable desire ema- 
nating from that which we have called the master- 
love of the Sacred Heart. 

Our Lord thus becomes Himself the Teacher, 
the infallible Teacher of the nature of devotion to 
His adorable Heart, showing us that reparation 
and apostolic zeal form together its essential char- 
acter. To console and sympathize with its sorrows, 
to compensate as far as is possible for its wrongs, 
its disappointments, its frustrated love, and to em- 
ploy every available means, but especially that of 
prayer, for gaining to it new adorers, new repairers, 
and for winning back those who have forsaken it, 
such becomes the imperative necessity of souls who 
truly love Our Lord. This is the motive of all 
their efforts ; this the aim of all various devotions 
and pious practices ; this the impelling force urging 
them to deny themselves. The voice of an outraged 
love seems ever appealing to their sympathies and 
touching those chords within their hearts that sor- 



The Love of the Sacred Heart. 637 

row alone can reach. But more even than this is 
contained in the plaints of that wounded Heart. 
They tell of souls who are being lost — souls for 
whom it shed its life's blood, and it becomes a sup- 
pliant asking for cooperators in the work of their 
redemption. It complains indeed that it has sought 
for one that would grieve with it, but there was 
none ; and for one that would comfort it, but found 
none (Ps. Ixviii. 21) ; but it wills that those who 
condole with its sorrows should practically en- 
deavor to diminish the cause of them. Now, the 
cause of the sorrows of the Sacred Heart is sin ; 
whatever other form we may give it, it always re- 
turns to that one comprehensive definition, sin in 
some of its manifold varieties and degrees. 
Reparation, then, in order to be real, must consist 
not only of compassion for Our Lord's griefs, but 
of compensation to the utmost of our power, by re- 
ducing the measure of sin in ourselves and in our 
brethren. 

The devotion to the Sacred Heart, far from being 
then, as some appear to suppose, a devotion wholly 
consisting of tender sentiments, is, when rightly 
understood, the most perfect observance of the first 
and great commandment, a powerful means, there- 
fore, for leading souls to the practice of sohd vir- 
tue, and of active and devoted zeal for the dearest 
interests of God. We have seen that if we really 
love the Sacred Heart we shall become gradually im- 
bued with its afifections, imitators of its virtues, and 
devoted cooperators with it in its work. 

God had already set before us as a law and a 
duty what the Sacred Heart teaches us by love, 
and it is this peculiar character of the teaching 
of that Heart that renders it so adapted to this 
latter age in which charity has grown cold, and 



638 The Love of the Sacred Heart, 

when egotism is gnawing at the very vitals of 
society. 

Yes, let us weep, as heretofore the pious women 
of Jerusalem, over the sorrows of Our Lord, but at 
the same time let us be mindful of the words He 
addressed to them when He told them to weep for 
themselves and for their children ; let us weep also 
for our sins and for those of our brethren, whose 
misdeeds are perhaps in many instances the off- 
spring of our own bad example, or of our neglect 
in fulfilling the duty imposed on us of praying for 
one another. 

The saints attributed to themselves the evils that 
befell Christianity and the sins that were com- 
mitted throughout the world. If our humility can 
not reach thus far, we may at least, without any 
exaggeration, reflect with sorrow that many sins 
might have been prevented, many more graces pro- 
cured for souls, had we entered more generously 
into the design of Our Lord in revealing the devo- 
tion to His Sacred Heart. He asked for repairers 
of His cruel wrongs, and cooperators, and the one 
can not exist without the other. The desire of mak- 
ing reparation is inseparably bound up with that of 
promoting Our Lord's dearest interests. These are 
the two streams whose waters are ever mingling and 
flowing on together toward the same term, and that 
term is the glorification of Our Saviour's loving- 
Heart. 

Very acceptable, indeed, to that Heart are the 
sentiments of tender condolence which are awak- 
ened within us when we hear of sins com- 
mitted against God, and of the coldness and neg- 
lect His love too often meets with; but if our 
reparation remained there, if it did not animate us 
to greater fidelity on our own part — if it did not, 



The Love of the Sacred Heart. 639 

moreover, assume an apostolic form, by eliciting 
from us the earnest prayer for the conversion of 
sinners, for the perseverance of the tempted, for the 
decrease of sin in all its terrible varieties — in a 
word, for all that touches the glory of God and the 
salvation of souls, our reparation would be mere 
sentiment, the result of a transient and sensible de- 
votion. 

In this then, as in everything else, let us look to 
our divine Alodel, who from the silent tabernacle 
whispers to our souls : ''Learn of Me,'' — learn of 
Me the characters of divine love — how strong in its 
tenderness, how delicate in its sympathy, how con- 
stant in its devotedness, how ardent yet how com- 
passionate in its zeal I Let us pray fervently and 
perseveringly that our love may increase, for love 
wall teach us all things. Much communication with 
the Sacred Heart will produce in our hearts a simi- 
larity of sentiments, a Hkeness of minds, a mutual 
confidence as between friend and friend, whence all 
its interests wall become ours. Then we shall com- 
prehend experimentally that true devotion to the 
Sacred Heart, far from being sentimental or effemi- 
nate, is strong in its very principle and fullof holy 
energy in its results. While gently and lovingly 
pouring balm into the wounded heart, it vigorously 
combats the enemy by whom that wound has been 
inflicted, and that enemy is sin. While condoling 
v/ith the grief that the prodigal has caused and 
striving by a more devoted love to compensate in 
some sort for its bitterness, it seeks out the wander- 
er, by procuring for him, by prayer and self-sacri- 
fice, actual graces impelling him to return, for only 
his return can fully heal the wound his wanderings 
have caused. 

Nothing more need be added in order to render 



640 The Love of the Sacred Heart. 

it evident that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is 
at once reparatory and apostoHc, and that the first 
imphes the second, which in its turn is an outcome 
of tTie first.* 

*From The Voice of the Sacred Heart, 



CHAPTER LVIII. 

JMoua ipracttcea In Ibonor of tbe SacteD Ibeart - 
ot 5e6U0. 

IN his excellent work, The Devotion to the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus, Father Noldin, SJ., says: 
''Whosoever desires to practice the devotion to the 
Heart of Jesus fruitfully and profitably must fix upon 
some prayers to be recited either daily, weekly, or it 
may be once a month or once a year. A general 
resolution to be devout to the Heart of Jesus is of 
little use, unless at the same time the manner in 
which the devotion shall be practiced is definitely de- 
termined upon. In doing this it is well to bear in 
mind the golden maxim of St. John Berchmans: 
'Non multum, sed constanterf Let only a few 
practices be chosen which can be performed with 
recollection, without haste; but what is once begun 
must not lightly be given up. It is not the number 
and length of our petitions which render them ac- 
ceptable to God, but the fervor, the fidelity, the per- 
severance of the suppliant. 

''Finally, too much stress can not be laid on the 
fact that all devotional exercises are not alike suited 
for all persons. Any particular one is therefore not 
to be condemned and rejected because it does not 
commend itself to or suit the feelings of one indi- 
vidual. Just as all musical instruments are not 
tuned to the same key, nor do all the strings of the 
same instrument give out one and the selfsame 
sound, so all Christians do not pray in the same 
manner ; nay, the same soul is wont to frame his 
petitions in different forms at different times. And 



642 Pious Practices in Honor of the Sacred Heart. 

only when each prays and sings in his own way does 
the voice of prayer ascend from the Church of God 
to the throne of the Most High as the melodious 
notes of the organ, or a part-song of exquisite har- 
mony." Some of the devotional exercises in use 
among the adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are 
mentioned by Father Noldin in the same book as 
follows : 

1. They join the League of the Sacred Heart, 
and daily make the Morning Offering of the 
Apostleship of Prayer, thus: ''O my God, I offer 
Thee my prayers, works and sufferings this day in 
union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the in- 
tentions for which He pleads and offers Himself in 
holy Mass, in thanksgiving for Thy favors, in re- 
paration for our offenses, and for the petitions of 
all our associates : especially this month for the 
general intention recommended by the Holy Father/' 

2. They regard pictures and images of the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus with devout reverence. In regard to 
these pictures Blessed Margaret Mary writes : ''Our 
divine Lord assured me that it was especially pleas- 
ing to Him to be adored under the symbol of the 
natural heart, and that He desired representations 
of it to be publicly exposed, in order, He added, 
thereby to touch the insensible hearts of men. He 
also promised me to pour into the hearts of all who 
should venerate such pictures the superabundance 
of His gifts and graces, and to grant to all places 
where they should be exposed for special veneration 
all manner of rich blessings.'' Hence it has become 
customary among those who have a devotion to the 
Heart of Jesus to put up in their houses, their own 
rooms, or even on their desk or work-table, a picture 
of the Sacred Heart, to which they pay devout rev- 
erence. 



Pious Practices in Honor of the Sacred Heart. 643 

3. They keep the feast of the Sacred Heart with 
fervor and devotion. 

4. They practice special devotions on the first 
Friday of every month. The first Friday of the 
month is observed in a special manner because Our 
Lord enjoined upon Blessed Margaret to receive 
holy communion on the first Friday of every month 
in order to repair the irreverences committed during 
the month against the Blessed Sacrament, and 
also because He indicated to her certain devotional 
exercises to be practiced on the first Friday of the 
month for the purpose of obtaining the grace of 
final perseverance. 

5. They offer some prayer or pious exercise (e.g., 
an act of consecration) daily, in honor of the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus. 

6. They are assiduous in paying frequent visits 
to the Blessed Sacrament, and often approach the 
holy table. Our Lord laid the injunction upon 
Blessed Margaret to receive holy commxunion as 
frequently as she was permitted to do so. It is an 
excellent plan always to go to communion with 
some definite intention, for some special object; for 
instance, in thanksgiving for benefits received from 
God; to obtain some particular grace for ourselves 
or for others; to increase in the knowledge of self 
and the love of God ; in obedience to the will of 
God, who desires that we should receive holy com- 
munion ; or in order to acquire a greater likeness to 
Our Lord. In any case, it is only right, whether one 
joins the Association of the Communion of Repara- 
tion or no, to habituate one's self to oft'er one's com- 
munion in reparation and satisfaction for the of- 
fenses committed against Our Lord in the Sacra- 
ment of His love, and to do this in union with the 
thousands of communions received and offered daily 



644 Pious Practices in Honor of the Sacred Heart. 

with this intention by the members of the aforesaid 
association. 

7. They place all their trust in the Heart of 
Jesus and consequently have recourse to it in all 
their necessities. In all sufferings, vexations, and 
difficulties they fly to the Heart of Jesus. It is the 
Heart of Him who said : ''Come to Me, all you 
that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you'' 
(Matt. xi. 28). 

8. They raise their heart to Jesus by frequent 
ejaculatory prayers. They do not wait until tempta- 
tions and adversities compel them to turn to Him ; 
they hold frequent intercourse with Him in the 
midst of their work and occupations. Now it is an 
act of love and thanksgiving which they breathe 
forth; now an ascription of praise or act of adora- 
tion, now an act of petition or propitiation, by which 
they venerate the Sacred Heart; and these tokens 
of reverence and affection are redoubled on days 
and in seasons that are specially dedicated to the 
honor of that Heart. They keep a picture of it 
before them in order to be more often reminded of 
it, and incited to pray that they may be kindled by 
the flames which consume that Heart, and illumined 
by the sight of the cross and wound and thorns ; 
stimulated to renewed zeal, inspired with fresh cour- 
age to sacrifice all and bear all for Christ's sake, who 
bore so much and sacrificed so much for them. 

9. They often send up heartfelt entreaties for 
pardon, in order to make some amends to Our 
Lord for the irreverences and impieties committed 
against Him. Not one of all our pious exercises is 
so pleasing to Our Lord and so essential a part of 
our devotion as the work of propitiation and repara- 
tion. The worshipers of the Sacred Heart are, 
therefore, not satisfied with avoiding everything 



Pious Practices in Honor of the Sacred Heart. 645 

that may grieve it ; on the contrary, they strive by 
propitiation and reparation to afford it consolation 
and joy. 

10. They make it their earnest endeavor to live, 
to labor, to pray, to suffer in constant union with 
the Heart of Jesus. For inasmuch as nothing is so 
well-pleasing to God as the Heart of His Son, 
nothing is more acceptable in His eyes than the soul 
which is united to that Heart : ''He hath graced us 
in His beloved Son" (Eph. i. 6). Therefore they 
are wont to offer all their actions, prayers, and suf- 
ferings with the same intention with which Christ 
Himself prayed, labored, and suffered during His 
life on earth. This was Blessed Margaret's con- 
stant practice; she learned it from Our Lord Him- 
self, and the Church instructs her priests to pray 
with the same intention : ''Domine, in iinione illius 
divince intentionis, qua ipse in terris laudes Deo per- 
solvisti, has tibi horas persolvo/' 

11. They maintain an intimate intercourse with 
Jesus Christ. Familiar intercourse with Our Lord 
is the choicest, the sweetest fruit of the devotion to 
His Sacred Heart; for this all the saints longed, 
this was the object of their aspirations. It consists 
in consulting Him about all our affairs, both those 
that relate to time and to eternity. In Him as in 
the heart of a true friend we shall find sympathy, 
solace, and succor. 

12. They strive to make their heart more and 
more like to the Heart of Jesus ; they strive to be- 
come purer, more mortified, more humble, more 
gentle, more patient, more obedient, more forbear- 
ing, more yielding, more recollected, more zealous, 
to cultivate likeness to Our Lord in all their 
thoughts, affections, actions, in a word, to form 
their heart after the pattern, the example of His 



646 Pious Practices in Honor of the Sacred Heart. 

divine Heart. In order to attain this end, it is es- 
sentially necessary to acquaint ourselves more 
closely, more accurately with the Heart of Our 
Lord and Master. In Holy Scripture He manifests 
Himself to us by the words He spoke, the actions 
He performed; and by meditation we penetrate 
more deeply into His Heart and acquire a knowl- 
edge of the most lofty dispositions, of the various 
virtues, in their highest perfection : ''Learn of Me, 
for I am meek and humble of Heart." 

13. They consecrate themselves wholly and irrev- 
ocably to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We know 
that, in accordance with Our Lord's command. 
Blessed Margaret was for many years in the habit 
of writing letters to priests. Religious, and the laity 
for the purpose of commending to them and spread- 
ing the devotion she had so much at heart. That 
to which she gives the greatest prominence, and of 
which she speaks most emphatically in her letters, is 
consecration and oblation of one's self to the Sacred 
Heart. 'The Redeemer,'' she. writes, "generally re- 
quires complete self-abandonment from His 
friends." She puts forward different arguments to 
induce those whom she addresses to make this act 
of oblation. 'Tt would give Our Lord singular 
pleasure," she writes on one occasion, "if you fre- 
quently renewed the entire sacrifice of yourself to 
Him, and practiced it faithfully." 

Two things chiefly are comprised in the act of 
consecration. First, complete forgetfulness of self, 
i.e., giving up entirely our own interests, profit, ad- 
vantage, our own glory, and our own ease. It is the 
penalty of original sin, from which we all sufifer 
more or less, that we are by far too self-occupied, 
too self-seeking, — that we think too highly of our- 
selves. Blessed Margaret Mary remarks, in regard 



Pious Practices in Honor of the Sacred Heart. 647 

to the mortification of sensuality and pride: "If 
Christ is to live in our heart by His grace and His 
love, we must die to self, to our concupiscences, our 
passions, our self-indulgences — to all, in short, that 
belongs to our unmortified nature/' 

In the second place, this consecration consists in 
living entirely for Our Lord, i.e., striving to love 
Him, to glorify and magnify Him to the utmost of 
our power and in as far as our circumstances per- 
mit. Consequently, abandoning all care of self to 
Him who cares for us, we must think only how to 
do our duty, our daily w^ork as well as possible to 
the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and to pro- 
mote the interests of that Heart to the best of our 
knowledge and ability. Thus when about to under- 
take anything we ought first to implore counsel and 
assistance from Our Lord to enable us to accom- 
plish it to His glory alone ; and when our task is 
finished we must give Him thanks with all our heart, 
whether it be crowned with success or result in fail- 
ure. Such is the plan of action, such the frame of 
mind of one who has dedicated himself entirely to 
the Heart of Jesus, and desires to live only for God. 
''It appears to me,'' writes Blessed Margaret, "that 
this single intention wall render our actions more 
meritorious and more acceptable in God's sight than 
all that may be done without that intention." 

'Tf you are faithful in doing the will of God in 
this life, your own will shall be accomplished 
throughout eternity," are the words of Blessed 
Margaret Mary. "The Heart of Jesus is at least 
worth yours. Leave all, and you will find all in 
the Sacred Heart. How sweet it will be to die after 
having had a constant devotion to the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus — of Him who will be Our Judge." 



CHAPTER LIX. 

Cbe iptomlees of our mvinc IRe^eemet to tboec wbo 
IDenerate 1bl6 SacreD 1beart» 

2rje ^rtuelftj) ^Promise tn ^^articular, 

I. 'T' WILL give them all the graces necessary in 
^ their state of life. 

2. I will establish peace in their houses. 

3. I will console them in their sorrows. 

4. I will be their sure refuge during life, and 
above all at the hour of death. 

5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their un- 
dertakings. 

6. Sinners shall find in My Heart a source and 
ocean of mercy. 

7. Tepid souls shall become fervent. 

8. Fervent souls shall rise thereby to the highest 
degrees of perfection. 

9. I will bless every place where there is a picture 
of My Heart exposed and venerated. 

10. I will give priests who spread this devotion a 
special power to move the hardest hearts. 

11. All those who propagate this devotion shall 
have their names written in My Heart, never to be 
effaced. 

There is a twelfth promise. It is found in a letter 
written by Blessed Margaret Mary in 1688 to Mere 
de Saumaise. The passage referred to is here given 
in full as rendered correctly by Father Thurston, 
SJ. : 

12. ''One Friday, during holy communion, He 
said to His unworthv servant — if she does not de- 



The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer. 649 

ceive herself — 'I promise thee, in the excessive 
mercy of My Heart, that its all-powerful love will 
grant to all those who communicate on nine con- 
secutive first Fridays of the month the grace of final 
repentance. They shall not die in My disfavor, nor 
without receiving their {sic) Sacraments; for My 
divine Heart shall be their safe refuge at this last 
moment.' " 

This twelfth promise has been the occasion from 
time to time of a great deal of excitement and even 
acrimonious controversy. The Rev. Ernest R. 
Hull, S.J., in a little book that bears the title. Devo- 
tion to the Sacred Heart, explains the twelfth prom- 
ise in a comprehensive and luminous manner, and 
answers all objections and difficulties urged against 
it most satisfactorily. We have great pleasure in 
recommending this treatise to the reader. It has 
been published in pamphlet form by the Catholic 
Truth Society of Scotland. Father Hull fortifies 
his position by excerpts from other writers, a few of 
which we quote in part. A French writer in Le 
Regne du Cceiir de Jesus comments as follows on 
the promises in general and on the twelfth promise 
in particular : ''Our Lord did not make these prom- 
ises except in favor of those who have a serious and 
constant devotion to His divine Heart. The fulfil- 
ment goes on a par with the devotion and will be 
more certain and abundant in proportion as the 
conditions laid down by Our Lord are more per- 
fectly accomplished. By these marvelous promises 
the Heart of Jesus intends solely to induce us to 
return to Him love for love, in order that, fortified 
by this love, we may practice in their sublime per- 
fection all the Christian virtues, even those which 
are the most difficult.'' 

Referring specially to the twelfth promise the 



650 The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer. 

pious author writes : ''Let us begin by saying that, 
extraordinary as this promise appears, it really con- 
tains nothing new. A similar one is attached to the 
scapular of Mount Carmel. Let us also add that 
this promise is certain as regards its origin 
and its effects. It was certainly made to 
Blessed Margaret Mary . . . and it is cer- 
tainly accomplished in favor of those who fulfil the 
conditions. 

''It is, however, necessary to understand it in its 
true sense and to guard against all false interpreta- 
tion. Our Lord does not say that those who accom- 
plished the conditions demanded are dispensed from 
an attentive vigilance to avoid all sin, or from a 
courageous struggle to vanquish temptations and to 
fulfil all the commandments, or from assiduously 
employing all the means which belong to a true 
Christian life — especially prayer and penance. It 
gives us this assurance only, viz,, that those who 
perform these nine communions will obtain the 
graces necessary for the exact observance 0(f the 
commandments and the evangelical counsels, for 
carrying the cross all the days of their life, and for 
persevering unto death in the narrow way which 
leads to heaven." 

An English writer gives the following explana- 
tion in the small Handbook of the Aposfleship of 
Prayer, which is circulated in England : 'That 
these words (of the twelfth promise) are among 
the authentic writings of Blessed Margaret Mary is 
certain. It is also certain that they were neither con- 
demned nor censured by the Church after the close 
examination to which all her writings were submit- 
ted in the process of her beatification, and though 
this must not be taken as implying that the Church 
authoritatively declares this particular revelation to 



The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer. 651 

have been a fact, still it implies that there is nothing 
in it opposed to Catholic faith. 

''While, therefore, we should not expect an 
authoritative declaration on the genuineness of this 
particular revelation, we may recognize that the 
Church leaves us free to accept it, provided always 
we understand it in a sense which nowise contra- 
dicts her teaching. For the same Lord whom we 
may believe to have made this revelation is He who 
teaches us always through the mouth of His Church. 

''Now the sixteenth Canon of the Council of 
Trent says : 'If any one, who has not learnt it by 
special revelation, declares, with absolute and in- 
fallible certainty, that he is assuredly to receive the 
great gift of final perseverance, let him be anath- 
ema.' Those, therefore, who believe the twelfth 
promise to have been really made must take care to 
understand it in such a way as not to fall under the 
condemnation of this canon. In other words, their 
confidence in the promise must not be turned into 
presumption : they must not declare, as with absolute 
and infallible certainty, that, whatever they may do 
during the remainder of their lives, after making 
the Nine Fridays, they' will in the end be saved. 

"There are two phrases in the twelfth promise re- 
corded by Blessed Margaret Mary which call for a 
word of explanation. 'One Friday,' she writes, 'if 
she does not deceive herself.' That this expression 
does not necessarily imply a doubt in her mind as to 
this particular revelation, we gather from her use 
of it in recording other revelations, and from the 
fact that her Superiors had explicitly directed her 
to speak in this way when she referred to the divine 
favors she received. Again, at the end of the prom- 
ise are the words : 'They shall not die in My disfavor, 
nor without receiving their Sacraments.' If it is 



652 The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer. 

true that some good persons who are said to have 
made the Nine Fridays have, as it is alleged, died 
without the rites of the Church, the explanation 
might be given that Our Lord blessed their desire 
of the Sacraments with the graces which would 
have accompanied actual reception, or conferred 
those graces at the confession and communion which 
He foresaw would be the last. 

''One word of warning ought to be given here. 
Some anxious souls who have frequently tried to 
complete the Nine Fridays and have never succeeded 
allow themselves to be disturbed by the thought that 
this is a bad sign, and that they will not persevere in 
grace to the end. Such anxiety is distinctly super- 
stitious, and is altogether foreign to the spirit with 
which Our Lord's most merciful words are to be re- 
ceived." 

Father Hull tells us how the ''devil's advocate'' 
objected to the twelfth promise and what reply was 
made to him. He writes : "In the course of the 
process of beatification, when the virtues and super- 
natural favors of Blessed Margaret Mary came un- 
der consideration, the promoter of the faith — the of- 
ficial popularly known as the 'devil's advocate' (we 
use Father Thurston's article*) — took exception to 
the Great Promise, objecting that Margaret Mary's 
visions several timies took the form of an assurance 
of predestination given to living people ; and he 
asks : 'Can one persuade one's self that the gift of 
final perseverance, which usually lies hidden in the 
inscrutable counsels of God, and is so rarely re- 
vealed, should so easily and frequently be revealed 
to that one person? Such revelations,' he adds, 'ac- 
cording to St. Francis de Sales, are to be suspected 
of their very nature.' 

"^The Month, June, 1903. 



The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer. 653 

''This was the 'devil's' argument. To which the 
promoter of the cause repHed that : 'According to 
the correct teaching of theologians, from St. Thom- 
as downward, devotion is not true devotion unless 
it finds the soul perfectly obedient to God ; and on 
this account, in all matters of this sort, the tacit con- 
dition is always supposed, viz., that the command- 
ments of God (without which no one can enter 
eternal life) are diligently observed.' He then re- 
fers to other instances, such as 'the recommenda- 
tions of the Rosary or the devotion to Our Lady 
of Mount Carmel, and other pious practices from 
which those devoted to them derive a strengthening 
hope of heavenly glory.' He then concludes : 'This 
is the only meaning of the promise — "that God will 
concede to those who carry out those practices, cer- 
tain special graces by which they may keep the com- 
mandments and so enter into life." ' 

"He afterwards goes on to say that 'the devotion 
to the Sacred Heart is only a special form of the 
practice of the love of God ; but any practice of the 
love of God involves keeping of the command- 
ments. And, after all, this certainty of attaining 
the kingdom of heaven is not promised to every- 
body, but only to those who have consecrated them- 
selves in an especial way to the honoring of the 
divine love.' 

"It seems that this answ^er was sufficient to sat- 
isfy the objicient; and no further obstacle to the 
process was raised on this score." 

Most pious souls interpret the twelfth promise in 
this sense, as Father Hull says : "If asked to state 
precisely what the promise does mean, we believe 
that, with a little help from the questioner, the reply 
would be vague but at the same time unobjection- 
able. 'It means,' they would say, 'that by the per- 



654 The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer. 

formance of the Nine Fridays we shall receive some 
special grace to persevere to the end, to be sorry for 
our sins, and to die with such Sacraments as may be 
necessary at our last moments — always supposing 
that we do not abandon our general good purpose 
of living well and serving God faithfully. It is an 
encouragement to us, but not an inexorably mechan- 
ical law. It fills us with hope and devout assur- 
ance. It does not furnish grounds for recklessness 
and presumption.' " 

An American writer* comments as follows on the 
twelfth promise : ''Certainty as to the fulfilment 
of the promise depends on many things about which 
certainty can not be had. And so long as anything 
remains uncertain in this matter of salvation it is 
mere folly to run any risk. We must still work on 
in fear and trembling." And again on page xx. : 
^'Granting, with theologians, that concerning our 
justification we may have some form of moral cer- 
tainty which frees us from anxiety and sets the 
mind at rest, . . . still this so-called moral certainty 
of our being in the state of grace while receiving the 
communions of the Nine Fridays would not suffice 
to take away all anxiety and set our minds at rest 
about our salvation. Why? Because of the doubts 
that overhang the Very meaning of the promise. As 
long as there can be any hesitancy as to the exact 
meaning of Our Lord's words, those who have made 
the Nine Fridays, and who feel, as it were, that 
they have made them worthily, must still remember 
that our divine Lord, neither in this revelation nor 
in any other, has spoken so clearly as to put their 
minds completely at rest concerning their eternal 
salvation. Far be it from us to set up a claim of 

"^Sacerdos in the American Messenger of the Sacred 
Heart, February, 1898. 



The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer, 655 

absolute certainty in regard to the meaning of Our 
Lord's words to Blessed Margaret Mary. Even if 
the interpretation that we have given above is held 
as nothing more than highly probable, still this is 
sufficient to make us practice with the greatest alac- 
rity and zeal the devotion of the Nine Fridays. A 
high degree of probability that a certain priceless 
treasure lies hidden in a field which I have bought 
is sufficient motive for me to spare no pains in 
searching for the treasure." 

Christ our Lord has not failed to fulfil His prom- 
ises of graces and blessmgs during life and at the 
hour of death to those who seek them in His Sacred 
Heart, as is attested by hundreds of thanksgivings 
published month after month by thirty-one periodi- 
cals in various languages. Faith in Christ's promises 
has evidently been richly rewarded. Jesus is faith- 
ful to those who love Him. Would that His Sacred 
Heart were known and loved by all men ! 



CHAPTER LX. 

Zbc Ibeart of Jeeua in iprai^et. 

*T~| ET US imagine we see Jesus kneeling in the 
'-'--^ little house of Nazareth, His sacred hands 
reverently clasped, His eyes closed or raised to heav- 
en. We have before us the Incarnate God praying 
to His Eternal Father. It will then refresh our souls 
to withdraw for a while within the silence and soli- 
tude of the holy house, and while we contemplate 
the scene with reverence let us endeavor to pene- 
trate the Heart of Him who is praying there. So 
beautiful is the picture presented to our minds 
by the thought of Jesus in prayer that truly 
it might suffice to rivet our inward eye and claim 
our adoring love, without the addition of any 
comment. 

Let us regard Him as the Wisdom of the Father, 
the Eternal Son, kneeling there in silent contempla- 
tion of the divine majesty unveiled before Him, 
while He pours out the eternal love, the burning 
prayer, which consumes His Sacred Heart. The 
labor of the day is over, and Jesus is now free to 
give Himself up unrestrainedly to that holy exer- 
cise which has not ceased to be the occupation of 
His soul amid His daily toil. How profound is the 
mystery of that divine communication which passes 
between the Eternal Father and the Eternal Son, be- 
tween the human Heart of the Man-God and the 
Father in whose bosom He had dwelt from all 
eternity ! Unchecked now by the external trammels 
to which in His Incarnation He had made Himself 
subject, He could deliver Himself up to the trans- 



The Heart of Jesus in Prayer. 657 

ports of His love, and taste, in His earthly exile. His 
old. His eternal delight of solitude with God. 

But we must not forget that we are contempla- 
ting our divine Model in prayer; for we are not to 
suppose that we have chosen one too exalted for our 
imitation. No, Jesus prays as one of us. It is in 
Him a human Heart that throbs with love and de- 
sire, and He teaches us eloquently how to pray, and 
discloses qualities with which our prayer should be 
endowed. He has formally constituted Himself our 
Master in prayer, as in all other things. In His 
public life and in His Passion He has taught 
us even the very words in which we should 
present our petitions, or upon which they should be 
formed. 

Now, it must be remembered that the Heart of 
Jesus did not change ; what it prompted His sacred 
lips to pronounce for our example afterwards, it 
contained within itself, and expressed in its secret 
communications with the Father during the hidden 
life at Nazareth. Therefore, we have only to pene- 
trate His Heart in order to hear Him praying to 
Our Father as well as His Father, teaching us thus 
to be unselfish in our prayer, and showing us that 
He carried all our necessities and interests in His 
Sacred Heart. We hear Him desiring the sanctifi- 
cation of the Father's name, the advancement of His 
kingdom, by which all peoples and nations may be 
brought to His knowledge and love; we find Him 
praying for the accomplishment of the Father's will 
by men on earth, even as it is accomplished in 
heaven. We shall hear Him also asking for "our 
daily bread," teaching us thus from whom we are, 
primarily, to expect the sustenance necessary for our 
temporal support, but instructing us, moreover, how 
earnestly and daily we are to pray for that ''super- 



658 The Heart of Jesus in Prayer. 

substantial bread'' without which we shall perish 
everlastingly. 

There, too, we learn the humble petition for the 
forgiveness of our sins, and the condition by which 
we are to hope for that forgiveness- — our own for- 
giveness, namely, of those who may have wronged 
us. Finally, we hear the cry for deliverance from 
temptation and every evil that may result from sin 
offered up for others as for ourselves. Beautiful 
prayers of the Heart of Jesus ! May you be ever in 
our hearts also, eyer ascending from them, in union 
with His Heart, to the bosom of Him who is Our 
Father likewise in heaven. 

Let us, when reciting the Pater Noster, reflect 
that it is the expression of the prayer of the Sacred 
Heart during these long years of the hidden life, 
when Our Lord was apparently doing nothing 
toward the accomplishment of His great work on 
earth. Surely such a reflection will help to animate 
us with His Spirit in reciting it, and thus render it 
far more efficacious in promoting His interests than 
we must fear it too frequently is. 

In contemplating the Heart of Jesus when en- 
gaged in prayer, we must have remarked the order 
which He observes therein. The sanctification of 
His Father's name, the coming of His kingdom, the 
perfect accomplishment of His will, are the objects 
of the opening petitions. Then follows the begging 
of those benefits which we are to ask for our neigh- 
bor and for ourselves, thus practically elucidating 
the teaching He afterwards gave when He declared 
that the first commandment of the Law was the love 
of God above all things ; and that the second was to 
love our neighbor as ourselves ; as also when He 
commanded us to seek first the kingdom of God and 
His justice. So will it be with us if charity is 



The Heart of Jesus in Prayer. 659 

rightly ordered in our souls. The love of God, and 
consequently the thirst for His glory, will hold su- 
preme place in our hearts, from whence will flow 
spontaneously, as from its source, the love of our 
brethren and the quenchless desire for their salva- 
tion. 

We have seen, too, the reverence with which 
Jesus prayed, a reverence which was at once tender 
and adoring, ready, and full of ardor. Holy 
Scripture tells us that ''He was heard for His rev- 
erence," and makes known to us the fervor with 
which He prayed by telling of the ''strong cry and 
tears'' with which it was accompanied. His rev- 
erence was so deep because He knew the majesty of 
Him to w^hom He prayed, and the intensity of 
fervor with which He prayed resulted from the ve- 
hemence of His desire. 

From our hearts also the "strong cry'' will come 
forth which shall "pierce the clouds" when we shall 
be filled with the spirit of the prayer of Our Lord's 
Heart, and when we have learned to love like Him, 
with the same kind of love, unselfish, self-forget- 
ting, and full of desire for the things that He de- 
sired. 

Finally, we too may participate in that delight in 
the holy exercise of prayer which we have witnessed 
in the Heart of Jesus. Love is its source — love 
which renders prayer not an isolated act distinct 
from the other duties of the day, but rather a more 
free, more unrestrained exercise of that which is 
ever going on within our hearts. He who loves 
God ardently longs for the hour when, external oc- 
cupations being over, he can give full scope to the 
effusions of his heart, alone with his Beloved. 

For him the great duty of prayer has nothing irk- 
some, even when deprived of sensible consolation. 



66o The Heart of Jesus in Prayer. 

The companionship of God has for him no tedious- 
ness. Prayer is for him soHtude with God, where 
he need have no reservations, where he need fear 
no criticism ; he is alone with his Father, as he will 
be in the hour of death, as he will be throughout 
eternity. His soul will remain tranquilly at rest 
with God — his heart beating in union with the Heart 
of Jesus, and even in trial and in suffering where 
this union exists there is peace. 

And now, as the fruit of this meditation, let us 
ask ourselves the cause of our frequent aridity in 
prayer, an aridity perhaps which we have falsely at- 
tributed to some supernatural visitation, but which, 
we must in all sincerity acknowledge, proceeds from 
the want of union beWeen our hearts and that of 
Jesus ; the absence of an earnest, absorbing desire 
for all that regards His glory; an indifference to 
that fusion of interests w^hich would render our 
hearts one with His, and make our prayer so fruit- 
ful an exercise for our own good and for the good 
of the Church and of society. We have the same 
objects to pray for now as Jesus had in the solitude 
of Nazareth. If, therefore, we do not find where- 
with to occupy our minds and hearts in prayer, we 
can only attribute it to our little love, to our apathy 
for the advancement of God's glory. Let us go in 
spirit to Nazareth and entreat: ''Heart of Jesus, 
teach me to pray — 'Our Father.' ""^ 

*From The Heart of Jesus of Nazareth. 



CHAPTER LXI. 

^be !Sscc\{nc66 ot tbe Ibeart ot Jesus* 

/T\EEKNESS is one of the chosen virtues of the 
^^*^ Heart of Jesus ; it shone in His birth ; it was 
Hke a heavenly language which said to the humble 
shepherds : Approach this Infant, fear not; He is full 
of goodness, of benignity, and of meekness. 

Meekness or sweetness is the daughter of humil- 
ity : every humble heart is as sweet as it is humble. 
What then should be the Heart of Jesus Christ? and 
how well was it not authorized to say to us : "Learn 
of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" ! 
The principle of this ineffable sweetness was in His 
Heart; He had but to follow its movements; His 
soul was always under the dominion of the Word, 
which governed and directed it in all things. How- 
ever, no soul ever had sentiments so lively, so 
delicate; no trait of injustice or of malice toward 
His enemies ever escaped Him, although He had all 
the aversion of a Man-God for their evil disposi- 
tions. 

The holy evangelists tell us little in regard to the 
exterior of Jesus ; but that which they have told us 
suffices to prove that a love tender and full of 
charms shone in all His actions. Born of a virgin, 
formed in the womb of His Mother by the direct 
operation of the Holy Spirit, destined to be the in- 
strument of the most glorious soul that ever existed, 
the body of Jesus should be infinitely more beautiful 
than that of Adam in the terrestrial paradise. Be- 
sides, had not the prophets foretold that He would 
be the most beautiful among the children of men? 



662 The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 

And to know that majestic sweetness shone in His 
features, in His words, and in all His movements, 
when He appeared upon earth, we have only to ob- 
serve the effect that His appearance produced upon 
those who surrounded Him. He took for His em- 
blem that gentlest of all creatures, the lamb; and 
the characteristics of this emblem were so strikingly 
depicted in His exterior deportment that St. John 
the Baptist had no sooner perceived His holy face, 
than he cried : "Behold the Lamb of God."* 

In His infancy it was natural that His counte- 
nance should wear an expression full of sweetness, 
which was the particular characteristic that one 
would expect to find. For if it be true that an in- 
nocent candor always shines in the eyes of infancy, 
before reason has yet enlightened them with its 
light, it should have shone in a much greater degree 
from the eyes of the Infant Jesus, as He only con- 
sented to pass through the years of early life to gain 
us more surely to Himself; therefore it is probable 
that He assumed the appearance of infancy under 
its most attractive form : He voluntarily softened 

*Jesus, my tender Lamb, I would, by this sweet name, 
make myself master of Thy Heart. This name awakens in 
Thee, I know, sentiments of mercy and love, of which I 
have great need, and which are sweeter to my heart than 
all others, for they speak to it of hope and banish all 
thoughts of fear or terror. O divine Heart ! O Lamb 
immolated from the beginning of the world : Lamb who 
hearest the sins of the world ; Lamb invoked by the saints 
of both Testaments, Lamb which was foreshadowed by the 
victim under the hand of the patriarchs, and which each 
day immolatest Thyself in reality by my hands ; whom 
John the Baptist pointed out, whom the Christians invoked ; 
Lamb which ornamentest the tomb of the martyrs and the 
Eucharistic chalice ; O Jesus ! Lamb of God and of men, 
be my sweetness and my strength, my purity and my life ! — 
Mgr. Baudry. 



The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 663 

the brilliant splendor of His intelligence, which 
shone in His infantine eyes, to assume in His 
countenance, along with the tenderest expression, 
that of the amiable joy fulness of a child of 
earth. And as He increased with age and showed 
Himself to the world, see how this character of 
sweetness evinced itself in His words, actions, and 
countenance. In walking by the shore of the Sea of 
Galilee He had only to say a word, and immediately 
one after another the Apostles quitted all to follow 
Him. ''Follow Me," were the only words He ad- 
dressed to them; and they devoted themselves to 
Him for life. 

Jesus Christ conversed familiarly with the com- 
mon people, with the poor, with children. He asso- 
ciated with rough men, and He bore with unalter- 
able sweetness their weakness, their imprudence, 
their ignorance, their inconstancy. He repeated for 
their sakes the same discourses. He developed their 
ideas, and raised them by degrees to the knowledge 
of the most sublime mysteries ; He animated their 
confidence, encouraged their good desires, correc- 
ted their false ideas ; finally. He disdained not to call 
them His friends, and even His brothers. He lived 
with them as a father rather than as a master; He 
treated them even almost as equals, and when one 
considers how greatly He was their superior, not 
alone on account of His divinity, but according to 
His humanity, one is ravished by His sweetness and 
condescension. His doctrine was sublime, and His 
manner all opposed to prejudice and passion; but 
His discourses were accompanied with so much 
grace and attractiveness that He persuaded, touched 
and attracted every heart. His sweetness appeared 
principally under the contradictions that He experi- 
enced during His public life and in the manner in 



664 The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus, 

which He justified Himself from the odious re- 
proaches that were cast upon Him. 

One day, passing through Samaria, He en- 
countered, near one of the wells, called the 
fountain of David, a woman drawing water. 
Who can not recall to mind the touching 
conversation of Jesus Christ with the Sama- 
ritan woman? This woman had not lived a 
regular life, nevertheless no word of reproach es- 
caped from the lips of the divine Saviour. Of what 
use would it be to discourage and dishearten? Jesus 
Christ loved better to make use of words full of 
light and of sympathetic commiseration, capable of 
touching and reclaiming : "If thou didst know the 
gift of God, and who He is that saith to thee, 'Give 
Me to drink,' thou perhaps wouldst have asked of 
Him, and He would have given thee living water !'' 

I can not pass in silence the fact that He never 
showed any weariness when the multitude pressed 
around Him, when the sick tried to touch the hem 
of His garments, or when the mothers desired Him 
to lay His hands upon their little ones. 

While the Son of Mary was dining with a Phari- 
see, a woman who did not bear a good reputation in 
the city of Jerusalem broke an alabaster vase filled 
with perfumed oil over the feet of Jesus Christ, 
which she had washed with her tears and dried with 
her hair and her kisses. This conduct seemed strange 
to the master of the house and Jesus said : "Dost 
thou see this woman ? I entered into thy house, thou 
gavest Me no water for My feet'' (this was custom- 
ary in the East) ; "but she with tears hath washed 
My feet and with her hair hath wiped them ; I say 
to thee many sins are forgiven her, because she hath 
loved much !" 

Never were there uttered words so touchingly 



The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 665 

sweet, so sublimely noble as those of the Savipur^ 
which He uttered at this time; they will reecho 
through all ages to gain hearts to Jesus Christ. 

After the feast of Tabernacles they brought into 
the Temple, and before Jesus, a guilty woman. The 
evil-minded Jews demanded of Jesus what they 
should do with this woman, and reminded Him that 
according to the Jewish law she should be stoned 
to death. Jesus cast down His eyes, and after keep- 
ing silence for a while, bent down and traced some 
words upon the ground and said : ''He that is 
without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at 
her." The crowd understood, and retired one after 
the other, filled with confusion. Then the Saviour 
said to the sinner: ''Woman, hath no man con- 
demned thee? . . . Neither will I condemn thee; 
go and sin no more !'' 

This interview with the sinful woman in the 
Temple is most touching; there is revealed in the 
language and conduct of Jesus Christ, in connec- 
tion with this woman, the goodness of a God, the 
wisdom of a God, and the mercy and sweetness of 
a God. Seek in modern times or in antiquity and 
you will find nothing like it; no action equal to it; 
it was the most sublime ray of the glory of God. 
Can you be surprised after that at this passage of 
Isaias, which foretells the sweetness of the Saviour : 
"He shall not be sad, nor troublesome . . . He shall 
not cry nor have respect to persons, neither shall 
His voice be heard abroad . . . The bruised reed 
He shall not break and smoking flax He shall not 
quench." Enlightened by the Holy Spirit Isaias has 
thus drawn the portrait of the Saviour. Are you 
astonished at the language of St. Anselm in the 
eleventh century, saying: "Good Jesus, how sweet 
Thou art to those who think of Thee, who love 



666 The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 

Thee! I know not truly, because it is beyond me, 
whether Thou art dearer to the hearts of those who 
love Thee as dwelling in flesh or in remaining the 
Word ; in Thy abasement or in Thy sublimity. For 
those who love Thee, oh, it is sweeter to see Thee 
born of a virgin than to know that Thou wert be- 
gotten of the Father before light in the splendor of 
the saints ! I prefer Thee in the form of a slave to 
that of Thy divinity equal to God. It is sweeter to 
contemplate Thee dying upon the cross, in presence 
of the Jews, than to admire Thee as Lord of the 
angels in heaven ; to follow Thee as obedient to the 
ways of the world than to salute Thee in possession 
of the empire of the universe." Are you astonished 
that the celebrated St. Catherine of Siena, speak- 
ing of Jesus Christ, in the sweet language of Italy, 
cries continually: ''Buon Gesii, Signor mio dolce! 
O me Dio amor dolce! dolce GestiT ''Good 
Jesus, my sweet Lord ! O my God, my sweet Love ! 
O sweet Jesus !" Are you surprised that in writing 
to the Popes and cardinals of her time St. Cath- 
erine always began her letter thus : "Carissiino 
padre in Gesu dolce Cristo'' — ''Dearest Father in 
our sweet Jesus Christ/' Yesterday and to-day, 
is not Jesus Christ for us all the ''dolce Gesu'' of 
St. Catherine of Siena ? 

What sweetness during the course of His dolorous 
Passion ! After having rendered in a few words a 
modest account of His conduct and doctrine He 
kept silence ; and He accomplished even to His last 
sigh that which was foretold of Him, that He would 
be slaughtered like an innocent lamb, without open- 
ing His mouth to complain. 

His friends. His dear apostles, joined theniselves 
to His enemies to fill up the measure of His sor- 
rows. He allowed Himself to be kissed by the 



The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 667 

traitor, and in return for reproaches He uttered 
only these sweet words: "Friend, whereto art thou 
come?" ''Dost thou betray the Son of man with a 
kiss?'' Peter denied him three times, with an oath, 
with an imprecation; Jesus turned toward him 
that ineffable look of sweetness, so well known by 
those who lived in His friendship. That was all 
His vengeance, His only reprimand, along with His 
pardon. If you desire to know what there was in 
those eyes so powerfully attractive, remember the 
effect that was produced upon Peter by one of His 
looks alone. This apostle denied Him with an oath ; 
when the eye of Jesus rested upon him he immedi- 
ately went out and shed bitter tears, although the 
Saviour had no longer that dignity nor beauty that 
had been admired in Him formerly ; His livid face 
now bore the marks of the blows that He had re- 
ceived; the blood with which He was stained had 
disfigured and rendered Him unrecognizable; but 
the sweetness of His divinity showed itself in the 
accusing gaze of those eyes of burning love which 
He turned upon His apostle, so full of reproachful 
goodness ; and he, opening his soul to repentance, 
shed torrents of tears. Even to the day of his mar- 
tyrdom, his tears flowed when the memory of that 
look of Jesus returned to him."^ 

This sweetness agreed perfectly in Jesus with 
zeal and firmness. When He defended the interests 
of His Father and of truth, or reprehended hypo- 

*Who shall ever say, who shall ever know how this look 
of Jesus and the tears of St. Peter have touched and saved 
souls ! Sweet look of infinite mercy, which yet came even 
after the lapse of eighteen centuries to pierce and purify 
our ungrateful hearts ; holy and sweet tears of repentance, 
which have extinguished and shall extinguish forever the 
flames of vice in this world and those of punishment in the 
world to come ! — Louis Veuillot. 



668 The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 

crites, He spoke with fire and energy; He testified 
a holy indignation and sometimes even displayed 
authority. But when there was question of none 
but Himself, He either forbore to refute the in- 
juries and calumnies with which He was charged, 
or else He defended them with extreme moderation, 
evincing no change, either in His manner or words, 
but employing without any warmth such invincible 
reasons as left His enemies without rejoinder. 

The sweetness proceeding from virtue does not 
resemble that of temperament. Souls naturally 
amiable are often weak, soft, indifferent, and even 
carry indifference to excess ; but those who become 
amiable in imitation of Jesus are strong, firm, full 
of feeling, indulgent according to necessity, with- 
out failing in the rules of justice. The soul gentle 
by nature does not reprehend for fear of disturbing 
herself or of falling out of humor. The soul ami- 
able through virtue reprehends with severity, but 
always with self-possession. The former dissimu- 
lates through timidity, the latter through a spirit of 
charity. The first often exposes herself to non-ful- 
filment of duty, the second always accomplishes it 
faithfully without any human respect. The one will 
manage others for her own interest, the other will 
do so solely for God and for the best. 

In works of zeal and in the direction of souls, en- 
deavor to imitate the ineffable sweetness of the 
Heart of Jesus, avoid violent methods, sharpness, 
harsh words, bitter reproaches or too light ones; 
do not break the bruised reed nor quench the smok- 
ing flax. See how Our Lord conducted Himself 
in regard to sinners in His own case. Did He sud- 
denly launch His justice upon them? No; He 
sweetly set before the guilty soul its infidelities and 
invited it to repentance; if He chastised, it was al- 



The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 669 

ways paternally and with mercy. In a word, He 
tried in every way to gain and change the will, and 
even until he gives himself up to final impeni- 
tence it is not permitted us to believe that God 
will entirely abandon the sinner without hope of 
pardon. 

James and John prayed Him to cause fire to de- 
scend from heaven upon the Samaritan city that re- 
fused to receive them, but He answered them : ''You 
know not of what spirit you are : the Son of man 
came not to destroy souls, but to save." Notwith- 
standing the reproof of the apostles. He called to 
Him even the little children, who had been attracted 
by the charm of His person, and caressed them with 
the tenderness of a mother. Neither contradiction 
nor injustice ever draw from Him a single word of 
harshness. His enemies dared to say to Him, the 
God of holiness, *'Thou hast a devil ;'' and what 
reply does He make to them ? "1 have not a devil : 
but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored 
Me." 

You have not the glory of God and the salvation 
of your neighbor more at heart than had Jesus ; and 
you can not employ more efficacious means than 
His. Act then, exteriorly, as He did interiorly. 
Let your advice, your invitations, your reproaches, 
be like His. Labor in union with His grace and 
therefore let that grace animate, direct, and sustain 
you in the exercise of your zeal. If we do not 
w^atch ourselves very closely, much of self will 
mingle with our zeal for God and for the good of 
souls. It is ourselves that we consider; it is our- 
selves whom we seek to please; it is not the reign 
of God, but our own that we would establish. 

Happy the heart in which, as in a sanctuary, 
sweetness acts under the divine influence of faith. 



670 The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus. 

hope, and charity! Fears and desires no longer 
trouble it; animal and carnal instincts are arrested 
in their development, or at least act only in the vivi- 
fying atmosphere of truth, of goodness, of beauty, 
by which they are surrounded and which impreg- 
nates and penetrates them.* 

*From The Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by the 
Rev. F. Huguet, Marist. 



CHAPTER LXII. 
pontifical Decrees Concerning Dail^ Communion^ 

^r^HE following are the original text and the offi- 
^^ cial translation, as given in the London Tub- 
let, of two decrees concerning daily communion, is- 
sued at Rome; one by the Sacred Congregation of 
the Council and the other by the Sacred Congrega- 
tion of Indulgences and Holy Relics. 

I. I. 

Hecretum Sacrae <8:ongteaa^ lliecree on Heceibmfl liailj 
tionis €:oncilii tje il^ost Ji^olj lEucJarist. 

De Quotidiana SS. Eu- ^he Council of Trent, 
chansttce Sumptione. h^^j^g -^ ^j^^ the un- 

Sacra Tridentina Sy- speakable treasures of 

nodus, perspectas habens grace which are offered 

ineffabiles quae Christifi- to the faithful who re- 

delibus obveniunt g r a- ceive the Most Holy Eu- 

tiarum divitias, sanctissi- charist, makes the foUow- 

mam Eucharistiam su- i n g declaration : ''The 

mentibus (Sess. XXH.^ holy Synod would desire 

cap. vi.), ait: Optaret that at every Mass the 

quidem sacrosancfa Sy- faithful who are present 

nodus, ut in singulis Mis- should communicate not 

sis adeles adstantes non only spiritually, by way 

solum spirituali affectum of internal affection, but 

sed sacramentaU etiam sacramentally by the ac- 

Eticharistice perceptione tual reception of the Eu- 

communicarent. Quae charist'' (Sess. 22, cap. 

A^erba satis aperte pro- 6). Which words de- 

dunt Ecclesiae desider- clare plainly enough the 



672 Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 

ium ut omnes Christifi- wish of the Church that 

deles ille coelesti convivio all Christians should be 

quotidie reficiantur, e t daily nourished by this 

pleniores ex eo sanctifi- heavenly banquet, and 

cationis hauriant eifectus. should derive therefrom 

abundant fruit for their 
sanctification. 

Huiusmodi vero vota And this wish of the 

cum illo cohserent desi- Council is in entire agree- 

derio quo Christus Domi- ment with that desire 

nus incensus hoc divinum wherewith Christ our 

Sacramentum instituit. Lord was inflamed when 

Ipse enim nee semel nee He instituted this divine 

obscure necessitatem in- Sacrament. For He 

nuit su3e carnis crebro Himself more than once, 

manducandae suique and in no ambiguous 

sanguinis bibendi, prse- terms, pointed out the 

sertim his verbis : Hie est necessity of eating His 

panis de eoelo descen- flesh and drinking His 

dens; non sieut mandu- blood, especially in these 

caverunt patres vestri words : ''This is the 

manna et mortui sunt: bread that came down 

qui mandueat hune pa- from heaven ; not as your 

nem vivet in ceternum fathers did eat manna 

(loan., vi. 59). Ex qua and are dead: he that 

comparatione cibi angel- eateth this bread shall 

ici cum pane et manna live forever'' (John vi. 

fctcile a discipulis intelligi 59). Now, from this 

poterat, quemadmodum comparison of the food 

pane corpus quotidie of angels with bread and 

nutritur, et manna in de- with the manna, it was 

serto Hebrsei quotidie easily to be understood 

refecti sunt, ita animam by His disciples that, as 

christianam coelesti pane the body is daily nour- 

vesci posse quotidie ac ished with bread, and as 

recreari. Insuper quod the Hebrews were daily 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion, 673 

in oratione Dominica ex- nourished with manna in 
posci iubet panem nos- the desert, so the Chris- 
irum qiwtidianum, per id tian soul might daily par- 
SS. Ecclesise Patres fere take of this heavenly 
unanimes docent, non bread and be refreshed 
tam materialem panem, thereby. Moreover, 
corporis escam, quam pa- whereas, in the "Lord's 
nem eucharisticum quo- Prayer," we are bidden 
tidie sumendum intelligi to ask for ''our daily 
debere. bread," the holy Fathers 

of the Church all but 

unanimously teach that 

by these words must be 

understood, not so much 

that material bread which 

is the support of the 

body, as the Eucharistic 

bread which ought to be 

our daily food. 

Desiderium vero lesu Moreover, the desire 

Christi et Ecclesise u t of Jesus Christ and of the 

omnes Christifideles quo- Church that all the faith- 

tidie ad sacrum conviv- ful should daily approach 

um accedant, in eo potis- the sacred banquet is di- 

simum est ut Christifi- rected chiefly to this end, 

deles, per sacramentum that the faithful, being 

Deo coniuncti, robur inde united to God by means 

capiant ad compescen- o f the Sacrament, may 

dam libidinem, ad leves thence derive strength to 

culpas quae quotidie oc- resist their sensual pas- 

currunt abluendas, et ad sions, to cleanse them- 

graviora peccata, quibus selves from the stains of 

humana fragilitas est ob- daily faults, and to avoid 

noxia, praecavenda : non these graver sins to 

autem praecipue ut Dom- which human frailty is 

ini honori, ac venerationi liable ; so that its primary 



674 Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 



consulatur, nee u t s u - 
mentibus id quasi merees 
aut prsemium sit suarum 
virtutum (S. August. 
Serm. LVII. in Matt. De 
Orat. Dom., v. 7). Unde 
S. Tridentinum Coneil- 
ium Eueharistiam voeat 
antidotum quo liberemur 
a culpis quotidianis et a 
peccatis mortalibus prce- 
servemur ( Sess. XIII. 
cap. ii). 



Hanc Dei voluntatem 
p r i o r e s Christifideles 
probe intelligentes, quo- 
tidie ad hanc vitae ac 
fortitudinis mensam ac- 
currebant. Erant perse- 
verant es in doctrina 
Apostolorum et c'om- 
municatione fractionis 
pan is (Act ii. 42). 
Quod saeculis posteriori- 
b u s etiam factum esse, 
non sine magno perfec- 
tionis ac sanctitatis emo- 
lumento, Sancti Patres 
atque ecclesiastici Scrip- 
tores tradiderunt. 



purpose is not that the 
honor and reverence due 
to Our Lord may be safe- 
guarded, or that the 
Sacrament may serve as 
a reward of virtue 
bestowed on the recipi- 
e n t s (St. Augustine, 
Serm. 57 in Matt., de 
Orat. Dom., n. 7). 
Hence the holy Council 
of Trent calls the Eu- 
charist ''the antidote 
whereby we are delivered 
from daily faults and pre- 
served from deadly sins" 
(Sess. 13, cap. 2). 

This desire on the part 
of God was so well un- 
der stood by the first 
Christians, that they 
daily flocked to the holy 
table as to a source of life 
and strength. ''They 
were persevering in the 
doctrine of the apostles, 
and in the communica- 
tion of the breaking of 
bread'' (Acts ii. 42). 
And that this practice 
was to continue into later 
ages, not without great 
fruit of holiness and per- 
fection, the holy Fathers 
and ecclesiastical writers 
bear witness. 



PontiUcal Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 675 



Defervescente interim 
pietate, ac potissimum 
postea lanseniana lue un- 
dequaque grassante, dis- 
putari coeptum e s t d e 
dispositionibus, quibus ad 
frequentem et quotidi- 
anam Communionem ac- 
cedere oporteat, atque alii 
pr3e aliis maiores ac diffi- 
ciliores, tanquam neces- 
s a r i a s , expostularunt. 
Huiusmodi discepta- 
tiones id effecerunt, u t 
perpauci digni haberen- 
tur qui SS. Eucharistiam 
quotidie sumerent, et ex 
tarn salutifero sacra- 
mento pleniores effectus 
haurirent ; contentis 
ceteris eo refici aut semel 
in anno, aut singulis 
mensibus, vel unaquaque 
ad summum hebdomada. 
Quin etiam eo severitatis 
ventum est, ut a frequen- 
tanda coelesti mensa in- 
tegri coetus excluderen- 
tur, uti mercatorum, aut 
eorum qui essent matri- 
monio coniuncti. 



Nonnulli tamen in con- 
trariam abierunt senten- 



But when in later 
times piety grew cold, 
and more especially un- 
der the influence of the 
plague of Jansenism, dis- 
putes began to arise con- 
cerning the dispositions 
with which it was proper 
t o receive communion 
frequently or daily; and 
writers vied with one an- 
other in imposing more 
and more stringent con- 
ditions as necessary to be 
fulfilled. The result o f 
such disputes was that 
very few were considered 
worthy to communicate 
daily, and to derive from 
this most healing Sacra- 
ment its more abundant 
fruits ; the rest being con- 
tent to partake of it once 
a year, or once a month, 
or at the utmost weekly. 
Nay, to such a pitch was 
rigorism carried, that 
whole classes of persons 
were excluded from a 
frequent approach to the 
holy table ; for instance, 
those engaged in trade, 
or even those living in 
the state of matrimony. 

Others, however, went 
to the opposite extreme. 



676 Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 

tiam. Hi, arbitrati Com- Under the persuasion 
munionem quotidianam that daily communion 
iure divino esse prsecep- was a divine precept, and 
tarn, ne dies ulla praeteri- in order that no day 
ret a Communione vacua, might pass without the 
prseter aha a probato Ec- reception of the Sacra- 
clesia usu aHena, etiam ment, besides other prac- 
feria VL in Parasceve t i c e s contrary to the 
Eucharistiam sumendam approved usage of t h e 
censebant, et ministra- Church, they held that 
bant. the Holy Eucharist 

ought to be received, and 
in fact administered it, 
even on Good Friday. 
Ad haec Sancta Sedes Under these circum- 
officio proprio non defuit. stances the Holy See did 
Nam per decretum huius not fail in its duty o f 
Sacri Ordinis, quod in- vigilance. For, by a de- 
cipit Cum ad aures, diei cree of this Sacred Con- 
12 mensis Februarii anni gregation, which begins 
1679, Innocentio Pp. XI. with the words Cum ad 
adprobante, e r r o r e s aures, issued on Febru- 
huiusmodi damnavit e t ary 12, a.d. 1679, "^ith 
abusus compescuit, simul the approbation of Inno- 
declarans omnes cuiusvis cent XL, it condemned 
coetus, mercatoribus these errors, and put a 
atque coniugatis minime stop to such abuses ; at 
exceptis, ad Communio- the same time declaring 
nis frequentiam admitti that all the faithful of 
posse, iuxta, singulorum whatsoever class, mer- 
pietatem et sui cuiusque chants or tradesmen or 
Confessarii indicium, married persons not ex- 

Die vero 7 mensis De- cepted, might be admitted 
cembris anni 1690, per to frequent communion, 
decretum Sanctissimus according to the devotion 
Dominus noster Alexan- of each one and the judg- 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 677 



dri Pp. VIII, propositio 
B a i i , purissimum Dei 
amorem absque uUius de- 
fectus mixtione requirens 
ab iis qui ad sacram men- 
s a m vellent accedere, 
proscripta fuit. 



Virus tamen iansenia- 
n u m, quod bonorum 
etiam animos infecerat, 
sub specie honoris ac 
venerationis Eucharis- 
tise debiti, haud penitus 
evanuit. Quaestio de 
dispositionibus ad f r e - 
quentandam r e c t e a c 
legitime Communionem 
Sanctse Sedis declara- 
tionibus supervixit; quo 
factum est ut nonnulli 
etiam boni nominis Theo- 
logi, raro et positis com- 
pluribus conditionibus, 
quotidianam Com- 
munionem fidelibus per- 
mitti posse censuerint. 



Non defuerunt aliunde 



ment of his confessor. 
And on December 7, 
1690, by the decree o f 
Pope Alexander VIIL, 
Safictissimus Dominus, 
the proposition of Baius, 
postulating a perfectly 
pure love of God, without 
any admixture of defect, 
as requisite on the part of 
those who wished to ap- 
proach the holy table, 
was condemned. 

Yet the poison of Jan- 
senism, which, under the 
pretext of showing due 
honor and reverence to 
the Holy Eucharist, had 
infected the minds even 
of good men, did not en- 
tirely disappear. The 
controversy as to the dis- 
positions requisite for the 
lawful and laudable fre- 
quentation of the Sacra- 
ment survived the 
declarations of the Holy 
See ; so much so, indeed^ 
that certain theologians 
of good repute judged 
that daily communion 
should be allowed to the 
faithful only in rare 
cases, and under many 
conditions. 

On the other hand, 



678 Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 



viri doctrina ac pietate 
prsediti, qui faciliorem 
aditum prseberent huic 
tarn salubri Deoque ac- 
cepto Usui, docentes, auc- 
toritate Patrum, nullum 
Ecclesise prseceptum 
esse circa maiores dis- 
positiones ad quotidia- 
nam, quam ad hebdoma- 
dariam aut menstruam 
Communionem ; f ructus 
vero uberiores longe fore 
ex quotidiana C o m - 
munione, quam ex heb- 
domadaria aut menstrua. 



Qusestiones super hac 
re diebus nostris adauc- 
tae sunt et non sine acri- 
monia exagitatse; quibus 
Confessariorum mentes 
atque fidelium conscien- 
tiae perturbantur, cum 
christianae pietatis ac 
fervoris baud mediocri 
detrimento. A viris id- 
circo prseclarissimis ac 
animarum Pastoribus 

SSmo Dno Nostro P i o 
Pp. X enixae preces por- 
rectae sunt, ut suprema 



there were not wanting 
men of learning and piety 
who more readily granted 
permission for this prac- 
tice, so salutary and s o 
pleasing to God. In ac- 
cordance with the teach- 
ing of the Fathers, they 
maintained that there 
was no precept of the 
Church which prescribed 
more perfect dispositions 
in the case of daily than 
of weekly or monthly 
communion ; while the 
good effects of daily com- 
munion would, they al- 
leged, be far more abun- 
dant than those of com- 
munion received weekly 
or monthly. 

In our own day the 
controversy has been car- 
ried on with increased 
warmth, and not without 
bitterness, so that the 
minds of confessors and 
the consciences of the 
faithful have been dis- 
turbed, to the no small 
detriment of Christian 
piety and devotion. Ac- 
cordingly, certain d i s - 
tinguished men, t h e m - 
selves pastors of souls, 
have urgently besought 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 679 

Sua auctoritate qusestio- his Holiness Pope Pius 
nem de dispositionibus X. to deign to settle, by 
ad Eucharistiam quotidie his supreme authority, 
sumendam dirimere dig- the question concerning 
naretur; ita ut hsec salu- the dispositions requisite 
berrima ac Dea acceptis- for daily communion ; so 
s i m a consuetudo non that this usage, so salu- 
modo non minuatur inter tary and so pleasing to 
fideles, sed potius augea- God, might not only suf- 
tur et ubique propagetur, f e r no decrease among 
hisce diebus potissimum, the faithful, but might 
quibus Religio ac fides rather be promoted and 
catholica undequaque im- everywhere propagated; 
petitur, ac vera Dei cari- a thing most desirable in 
tas et pietas baud parum these days, when religion 
desideratur. Sanctitas and the Catholic faith are 

vero Sua, cum Ipsi max- attacked on all sides, and 
ime cordi sit, ea qua the true love of God and 
pollet solicitudine a c genuine piety are so lack- 
studio, ut christianus ing in many quarters, 
populus ad Sacrum con- And his Holiness, being 
vivium perquam frequen- most earnestly desirous, 
ter et etiam quotidie ad- out of his abundant solic- 
vocetur eiusque fructibus itude and zeal, that the 
amplissimis potiatur, faithful should be invited 

qusestionem prsedictam to partake of the sacred 
huic Sacro Ordini exami- banquet as often as pos- 
nandam ac definiendam sible, and even daily, 
commisit. and should profit to the 

utmost by its fruits, com- 
m i 1 1 e d the aforesaid 
question to this Sacred 
Congregation, to be 
looked into and decided 
once for all (deiinien- 
dum). 



68o Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 

Sacra igitur Concilii Accordingly, the 

Congregatio in plenariis Sacred Congregation of 
Comitiis diei i6 mensis the Council, in a plenary 
Dec. 1905 hanc rem ad Session held on Decem- 
examen accuratissimum ber 16, 1905, submitted 
revocavit, et rationibus the whole matter to a 
hinc inde adductis sedula very careful scrutiny ; 
maturitate perpensis, ea and, after sedulously ex- 
quae sequuntur statuit ac amining the reasons ad- 
declaravit: duced on either side, de- 

termined and declared as 
follows : 
1° Communio fre- i. Frequent and daily 
quens et quotidiana, ut- communion, as a thing 
pote a Christo Domino et most earnestly desired by 
a Catholica Ecclesia op- Christ our Lord and by 
tatissima, omnibus the Catholic Church, 
Christifidelibus cuiusvis should be open to all the 
ordinis aut conditionis faithful, of whatever 
pateat; ita ut nemo, qui rank and condition of 
in statu gratise sit et life; so that no one who 
cum recta piaque mente is in the state of grace, 
ad S. Mensam accedat, and who approaches the 
prohiberi ab ea possit ; holy table with a right 

and devout intention, can 

lawfully be hindered 

therefrom. 

2° Recta autem mens 2. A right intention 

in eo est, ut qui ad consists in this : that he 

sacram mensam accedit who approaches the holy 

non Usui, aut vanitati, aut table should do so, not 

humanis rationibus in- out of routine, or vain- 

dulgeat, sed Dei placito glory, or human respect, 

satisfacere velit, ei arc- but for the purpose of 

tius caritate coniungi, ac pleasing God, or being 

divino illo pharmaco suis more closely united with 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 68i 



infirmitatibus ac defecti- 
bus occurrere; 



3° Etsi quam maxime 
expediat ut frequenti et 
quotidiana Communione 
utentes venialibus pecca- 
tis, saltern plene delibera- 
tis, eorumque affectu sint 
expertes, sufficit nihilo- 
minus ut culpis mortali- 
bus vacent, cum propo- 
sito se nunquam in pos- 
terum peccaturos : quo 
sincere animi proposito, 
fieri non potest quin quo- 
tidie communicantes a 
peccatis etiam venialibus 
ab eorumque affectu sen- 
sim se expediant ; 



4° Cum vero Sacra- 
menta Novae Legis, etsi 
effectum suum ex opere 
o p e r a t o sortiantur, 
maiorem tamen p r o - 
ducant effectum quo 
maiores dispositiones in 
iis suscipiendis adhibean- 
tur, idcirco curandum 
est ut sedula ad sacram 
Communionem prsepara- 



Him by charity, and of 
see king this divine 
remedy for his weak- 
nesses and defects. 

3. Although it is more 
expedient that* those who 
communicate frequently 
or daily should be free 
from venial sins, espe- 
cially from such as are 
fully deliberate, and 
from any affection 
thereto, nevertheless it is 
sufficient that they be 
free from mortal sin, 
with the purpose of never 
sinning mortally in fu- 
ture; and, if they have 
this sincere purpose, it is 
impossible but that daily 
communicants should 
gradually emancipate 
themselves from even 
venial sins, and from all 
affection thereto. 

4. But whereas the 
sacraments of the New 
Law, though they take 
effect ex opere operato, 
nevertheless produce a 
greater effect in propor- 
tion as the dispositions of 
the recipient are better; 
therefore, care is to be 
taken that holy commun- 
ion be preceded by seri- 



682 PontiUcal Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 



tio antecedat, et congrua 
gratiarum actio inde se- 
quatur, iuxta u n i u s - 
ciiiusque vires, c o n d i - 
tionem ac officia ; 

5° Ut frequens et quo- 
t i d i a n a Communio 
m a i o r i prudentia fiat 
uberiorique m e r i t o 
augeatur, oportet ut Con- 
fessarii consilium interce- 
dat. Caveant tamen Con- 
fessarii ne a frequenti seu 
quotidiana Communione 
quemqiiam avertant, qui 
in statu gratise reperia- 
tur et recta mente acce- 
dat; 



6° Cum autem per- 
spicuum sit ex frequenti 
seu quotidiana S. Eu- 
charisti3e sumptione 
unionem cum Christo 
augeri, spiritualem vitam 
uberius ali, animam vir- 
tutibus effusius instrui, 
et aeternse felicitatis pig- 
nus vel firmius sumenti 
donari, idcirco Parochi, 
Confessarii et conciona- 
tores, iuxta probatam 
Catechismi Romani doc- 



ous preparation, and fol- 
lowed by a suitable 
thanksgiving according 
to each one's strength, 
circumstances, and 
duties. 

5- That the practice of 
frequent and daily com- 
munion may be carried 
out with greater pru- 
dence and more abundant 
merit, the confessor's ad- 
vice should be asked. 
Confessors, however, are 
to be careful not to dis- 
suade any one {ne quern- 
quant avertant) from fre- 
quent and daily commun- 
ion, provided that he is 
in a state of grace and 
approaches with a right 
intention. 

6. But since it is plain 
that, by the frequent or 
daily reception of the 
Holy Eucharist, union 
v/ith Christ is fostered, 
the spiritual life more 
abundantly sustained, the 
soul more richly en- 
dowed with virtues, and 
an even surer pledge of 
everlasting happiness be- 
stowed on the recipient, 
therefore parish priests, 
confessors and preachers 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 683 



trinam (Part. II. cap. iv. 
q. lviii.),christianum pop- 
ulumad hunctam pium ac 
tarn salutarem usum cre- 
bris admonitionibus mul- 
toque studio cohortentur ; 



7° Communio f r e - 
quens et quotidiana prae- 
sertim in religiosis Insti- 
tutis cuiusvis generis pro- 
moveatur ; pro quibus 
tamen firmum sit decre- 
tum Qtiemadmodum diei 
17 mensis Decembris 
1890 a S. Congr. Episco- 
porum et Regularium 
latum. Quam maxime 
quoque promoveatur in 
clericorum Seminariis, 
quorum alumni altaris in- 
hiant servitio; item in 
aliis christianis omne ge- 
nus ephebeis; 



8° Si quae sint Insti- 
tuta, sive votorum solem- 
nium sive simplicium, 
quorum in regulis aut 
constitutionibus, vel 
etiam calendariis, Com- 
muniones aliquibus die- 



— in accordance with the 
approved teaching of the 
Roman Catechism (Part 
ii. cap. 4, q. 58) — are fre- 
quently, and with great 
zeal, to exhort the faith- 
ful to this devout and sal- 
utary practice. 

7. Frequent and daily 
communion is to be pro- 
moted especially in Re- 
ligious Orders and Con- 
gregations of all kinds; 
with regard to which, 
however, the decree Que- 
madmoditm, issued on 
December 17, 1890, by 
the Sacred Congregation 
of Bishops and Regulars 
is to remain in force. It 
is also to be promoted 
especially in ecclesiastical 
seminaries, where stu- 
dents are preparing for 
the service of the altar; 
as also in all Christian 
establishments of what- 
ever kind, for the train- 
ing of youth. 

8. In the case of relig- 
ious institutes, whether of 
solemn or simple religious 
vows, in whose Rules, or 
Constitutions, or calen- 
dars, communion is as- 
signed to certain fixed 



684 Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 



bus affixse et in iis iussae 
reperiantur, hse normse 
tanquam mere directives 
non tamquam prcecep- 
tivco putandse sunt. 
Praescriptus vero Com- 
munionum numerus ha- 
beri debet ut quid mini- 
mum pro Religiosorum 
pietate. Idcirco f r e - 
quentior vel quotidianus 
accessus ad eucharisti- 
cam mensam libere eis- 
dem patere semper de- 
bebit, iuxta normas su- 
perius in hoc decreto 
traditas. Ut autem om- 
nes utriusque sexus re- 
ligiosi huius d e c r e t i 
dispositiones rito cog- 
noscere queant, singula- 
rum domorum modera- 
tores curabunt, ut illud 
quotannis vernacula lin- 
gua in communi legatur 
intra Octavam festivi- 
tatis Corporis Christi ; 

9° Denique post pro- 
mulgatum hoc Decretum 
omnes ecclesiastici scrip- 
tores a quavis contentiosa 
disputatione circa d i s - 
positiones ad frequentem 
et quotidianam C o m - 
munionem abstineant. 



days, such regulations are 
to be regarded as directive 
and not preceptive. In 
such cases the appointed 
number of communions 
should be regarded as a 
minimum, and not as set- 
ting a limit to the devo- 
tion of the Religious. 
Therefore, freedom of 
access to the Eucharistic 
table, whether more fre- 
quently or daily, must al- 
ways be allowed them, 
according to the prin- 
ciples above laid down in 
this decree. And in or- 
der that all Religious of 
both sexes may clearly 
understand the p r o - 
visions of this decree the 
Superior of each house is 
to see that it is read in 
community, in the ver- 
nacular, every year with- 
in the octave of the feast 
of Corpus Christi. 

9. Finally, after the 
publication of this decree, 
all ecclesiastical writers 
are to cease from con- 
tentious controversies 
concerning the disposi- 
tions requisite for fre- 
quent and daily com- 
munion. 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 685 

Relatis autem his om- All this having been 

nibus ad SSmum D. N. reported to His Holi- 

Pium Pp. X. per infra- ness Pope Pius X. by the 

scriptumS.C. Secretarium undersigned Secretary of 

in audientia diei 17 mens, the Sacred Congregation, 

Dec. 1905, Sanctitas Sua in an audience held on 

hoc Emorum Patrum de- December 17th, 1905, his 

cretum ratum habuit, Holiness ratified and 

confirmavit atque e d i confirmed the present de- 

iussit, contrariis quibus- cree, and ordered it to be 

cumque minime obstanti- published, anything to 

bus. Mandavit insuper the contrary notwith- 

ut mittatur ad omnes lo- standing. He further or- 

c o r u m Ordinarios et dered that it should be 

Prselatos Regulares, ad sent to all local ordina- 

hoc ut illud cum suis ries and regular prelates, 

Seminariis, Parochis, in- to be communicated by 

stitutis religiosis et sacer- them to their respective 

dotibus respective com- seminaries, parishes, re- 

municent, et de execu- ligious institutes and 

tione eorum quae in eo priests ; and that in their 

statuta sunt S. Sedem reports concerning the 

edoceant in suis relationi- state of their respective 

bus de dioecesis seu insti- dioceses or institutes, 

tuti statu. they should inform the 

Holy See concerning the 

execution of the matters 

therein determined. 

Datum Romse, die 20 Given at Rome, the 

Decembris 1905. 20th day of December, 

►fiViNCENTius Card., 1905. 

Episc, "^Vincent, 

Pr^nestinus. Card. Bishop of Pales- 

Prcefectus. trina, Prefect. 

C. De Lai, Secretarhis. Cajetan De Lai, Sec. 



686 Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 



11. 
©ectetum gatbfs et <!^ri)is. 

Saiictissimo Domino 
Nostro Pio Pp. X. vel 
maxime cordi est ut. effi- 
cacius in dies propage- 
tur ; uberioresque edat 
virtutum omnium fruc- 
tus iaudabilis ilia ac Deo 
V a 1 d e accepta consue- 
tudo, quae fideles, in 
statu gratiae rectaque 
cum mente, ad sacram 
Communionem quotidie 
sumendam accedant. 
Quamobrem supplicia 
plurimorum vota ab Emi- 
nentissimo Viro Cardi- 
nali Casimiro Gennari 
delata benigne 1 i b e n - 
t e r q u e excipiens, iis 
plane cunctis qui memo- 
ratam consuetudinem ha- 
bent, aut inire exoptant, 
specialem merito gra- 
t i a m elargiri statuit, 
Clemens porro Pp. XIII. 
f. r. per decretum huius 
sacri Ordinis, sub die g 
Decembris 1763 ''omni- 
bus christifidelibus, qui 
frequenti peccatorum 

confessione animum 

studentes expiare, semel 
saltem in hebdomada ad 



11. 
IBecree on t!)e Confession of 
HBailj Communicants, 
His Holiness Pope 
Pius X. most earnestly 
desires that the praise- 
worthy custom, so very 
acceptable to God, by 
which the faithful, in a 
state of grace and with a 
right intention, approach 
daily to holy communion, 
may become more gen- 
eral and may lead to 
more virtuous lives. For 
which reason, graciously 
and gladly receiving the 
petitions of many per- 
sons addressed to him 
through the Most Emi- 
nent Cardinal Casimir 
Gennari, he has justly 
determined to grant a 
special favor to all those 
who follow or desire to 
follow the practice afore- 
said. 

Pope Clement XIII., 
of happy memory, by a 
decree of this Sacred 
Congregation of Decem- 
ber 9, 1763, granted to 
all the faithful, "who, 
striving to purify their 
souls by frequent con- 
fession of their sins, were 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 687 



Sacramentum Poeniten- 
tiae accedere, nisi legi- 
time impediantur, con- 
sueverunt, et n u 1 1 i u s 
lethalis culpse a se post 
praedictam ultimam con- 
fessionem commissse sibi 
conscii sunt, indulsit, ut 
omnes et quascumque In- 
dulgentias consequi pos- 
sint, etiam sine actuali 
confessione quae coetero- 
quin ad eas lucrandas 
necessaria esset. Nihil 
tamen innovando circa 
Indulgentias lubilaei, 
tarn ordinarii q u a m 
extraordinarii, aliasque 
ad instar lubilaei con- 
cessas, pro quibus asse- 
quendis, sicut et alia 
opera iniuncta, ita et 
sacramentalis confessio 
tempore in earum con- 
c e s s i o n e praescripto 
peragatur." Nunc vero 
Beatissimus Pater Pius 
X omnibus christifideli- 
bus, qui in statu gratiae 
et cum recta piaque 
mente quotidie Sancta de 
Altari libare consuescunt, 
quamvis semel aut iterum 
per hebdomadam a com- 
m u n i o n e abstineant, 
praef ato tamen f . r. 



accustomed, unless they 
were legitimately hin- 
dered, to approach the 
Sacrament of Penance, at 
least once a week, and 
were not conscious of 
having committed any 
mortal sin since their last 
confession, the privilege 
of gaining all indul- 
gences whatsoever, with- 
out the actual confession 
which otherwise would 
be necessary for gaining 
them ; this concession, 
however, being in no wise 
applicable to the indul- 
gences of a jubilee, 
whether ordinary or ex- 
traordinary, nor to other 
indulgences granted i n 
like manner, for which, 
besides the other works 
enjoined, sacramental 
confession must be made 
within the time p r e - 
scribed/' Now, how- 
ever, to all the faithful 
who, being in a state of 
grace and having a right 
and devout intention, are 
accustomed daily to re- 
ceive the holy Sacrament 
of the Altar, even if they 
once or twice in a week 
omit their daily com- 



688 Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 



dementis Pp. XIII. in- 
dtilto frui posse concedit, 
absque hebdomadarise 
illiiis confessionis obliga- 
tione, quae ceteroquin ad 
Indulgentias eo temporis 
intervallo decurrentes 
rite lucrandas necessaria 
extaret. Hanc insuper 
gratiam Eadem Sanctitas 
Sua futuris quoque tern- 
poribus V a 1 i t u r a m 
clementer declaravit. 
Contrariis quibuscumque 
non obstantibus. 



Datum Romse, e 
Secretaria S. Congrega- 
tion i s Indulgentiis 
Sacrisque Reliquiis 
prsepositae, die 14 Feb- 
ruarii 1906. 

A. Card. Tripepi, 

L. •!< S. Prcefectus. 

D. Panici Archiep. 

Laodicen, 

Secretarius. 



munion, our Most Holy 
Father Pius X. grants 
that they may avail them- 
selves of the above-men- 
tioned Indult of Clem- 
ent XIIL, of happy mem- 
ory, without the weekly 
confession which in other 
circumstances is still of 
obligation for rightly 
gaining the indulgences 
that occur during the 
week. His Holiness, 
moreover, has graciously 
declared that this privi- 
lege will hold good in fu- 
ture times. Anything 
to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

Given at Rome, the 
14th day of February, 
1906. 
■^ A. Card. Tripepi, 

Prefect, 
D. Panici, Archbishop 
of Laodicea, 
Secretary. 

The present rescript 
has been shown at the 
Secretariate of the 
Sacred Congregation o f 
Indulgences and Holy 
Relics. In testimony 
whereof, etc. 
Joseph M. Canon 

CosELLi, Substitute, 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 689 

Given at Rome, at the 
aforesaid Secretariate, 
the 1 6th day of Febru- 
ary, 1906. 



PREGHIERA PER LA PROP- PRAYER FOR THE PROPA- 

AGAZIONE DEL PIO USO CATION OF THE PIOUS 

DELLA COMMUNIONE CUSTOM OF DAILY COM- 

QUOTIDIANA. MUNION. 



O dolcissimo Gesu che 
veniste al mondo per 
dare a tutte le anime la 
vita della grazia Vostra, 
e che, per conservarla ed 
alimentarla in esse, 
voleste essere e la quo- 
tidiana medicina della 
loro quotidiana infermita 
ed il loro quotidiano sos- 
tentamento ; umilmente 
V i preghiamo, per i 1 
Vostro Cuore cosi ar- 
dente dell' amor nostro, a 
diffondere sopra di tutte 
il Vostro divino spirito, 
affinche quelle che sven- 
turamente sono in pec- 
cato mortale, converten- 
dosi a^ Voi, riacquistino 
la vita della grazia per- 
duta, e quelle che, per 
Vostro dono, vivono gia 
di questa vita divina, 
ogni giorno, quando pos- 
sono, si accostino devota- 



O sweet Jesus, who 
didst come into the world 
to give to all souls the 
life of Thy grace, and 
who, to preserve and 
nourish in them this life, 
hast wished to be their 
daily food and the daily 
remedy of their daily 
weakness, we humbly 
supplicate Tliee, by Thy 
Heart so inflamed with 
love for us, to shed upon 
all souls Thy divine spir- 
it, that they who, un- 
happily, are in mortal 
sin, may be converted to 
Thee and recover the 
life of grace that they 
have lost, and that they 
who, by Thy help, al- 
ready live this divine life, 
may devoutly approach 
Thy holy table every day 
that they can ; so that by 
means of daily com- 



690 PontiUcql Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 

mente alia Vostra sacra munion, receiving daily 

mensa, onde per mezzo the antidote of their daily 

della quotidiana Com- venial sins, and feeding 

unione, ricevendo ogni daily the life of Thy grace 

giorno il contravveleno in their soul, and thus 

dei loro peccati veniali purifying themselves al- 

quotidiani, ed ogni gior- ways more and more, 

no alimentando in se la they may, at last, arrive 

vita della grazia Vostra, at the possession of the 

e purificando cosi sempre life of beatitude with 

p i u I'anima propria, Thee ! Amen, 
giungano finalmente al 
conseguimento della vita 
con Voi beata. Amen. 

Three hundred days* indulgence every day. — Pius X. 

'''mt^^ ^rt TOou ^fraOrr* 

Blessed Emily Bicchieri, of the Order of Domin- 
icans, had the most ardent love for the Blessed Sac- 
rament. She was permitted to communicate thrice 
in the week and on all festivals, which in those days 
was unusually frequent. Emily's humility took 
alarm, and she resolved to abstain for a time from 
approaching the holy table. But Our Lord would 
not allow His spouse to fall into this dangerous de- 
lusion. He appeared to her radiant with celestial 
glory saying : ''Beloved spouse, why art thou afraid 
to approach My banquet ? Have I not prepared it 
on purpose that I might feed thee with My flesh and 
blood ? Come without fear and look not so much at 
thine own vileness, but rather on the loving pity 
which moved Me to institute this Sacrament for the 
happiness of My creatures. Learn that they who re- 
ceive Me out of love please Me infinitely more than 
they zvho keep azvay from Me out of fear/' 



Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion. 691 

Reassured by this vision, the servant of God hun- 
gered more and more after the Bread of angels. One 
day she was detained at the bedside of a sick Sister 
and thus prevented from communicating with the 
rest. As soon as she was free she went to the choir 
and lovingly ofifered to Our Lord the great priva- 
tion which she had suffered. An angel immediately 
appeared and brought her holy communion in the 
sight of all the Sisters.* 

"^Sentinel of the Blessed Sacrament, 



CHAPTER LXIII. 

Communion tor IRell^loue. 

^I^Tfter the priest, sanctified by ordination to be 
(s/^ the worthy minister of the daily Sacrifice and, 
consequently, to consummate it by daily communion, 
if there is another being destined and fitted by her 
vocation for the daily nourishment of the flesh of 
Jesus Christ, it is, assuredly, the Religious. She has 
for it a double need, created by the holy state that she 
has embraced : the need of His love, and that of her 
own indigence. 

The profession of holy virginity and the benedic- 
tion of the Pontiff have consecrated her the spouse 
of Jesus Christ. She has left the ranks of the laity 
and taken her place in the sacred hierarchy, forming 
therein the choir of virgins. She belongs no more 
to her family, and she can no longer dispose of her 
heart, for she has vowed it entirely and forever to 
her only Spouse. If love is the bond and the law of 
Christian marriage, in a far higher degree is it such 
in the transcendent union with the Son of God which 
the Religious contracts ; for the Spouse whom she 
has chosen possesses every perfection without failing 
or defect, and He is so lovable that He may be liter- 
ally loved to adoration. She can, then, live only to 
love Him ; she can serve Him, labor and suffer only 
for love of Him. But love is kept alive by intimate 
relations with the beloved, by mutual presence, by 
the common life, by union of all kinds. It is per- 
fectly satisfied only by the most entire, the closest 
possession. Give, then, to the spouse her Spouse. 



Communion for Religious. . 693 

Let her not only see Him, converse with Him, 
serve Him, but let her eat Him, let her possess Him 
in reality, since He is of such a nature that we can 
take Him as our nourishment. To feed her love, 
give her the Bread of divine charity, but give it as 
often as it is permitted, and that is every day. Is 
she who is not allowed to sit at the table of the 
Spouse for the daily repast a spouse ? She is rather 
a stranger or a servant! 

The heart of the Religious has need of Jesus, be- 
cause it is to Him that she has given herself, be- 
cause it is He whom she seeks, and whom nothing 
can ever replace. She makes the sacrifice of all the 
loved ones of her family, she renounces the joy of 
becoming at a new fireside the object of a love as 
sacred, and this for a Being superior to all others, 
and whom she can love with a higher love. It is not 
for the spiritual advantages found in the religious 
state, although so desirable, nor to satisfy the taste 
for solitude or the apostolate, nor to gain the grati- 
tude of those that they benefit that so many con- 
front its subjection, privations, and trials. It is to 
find Jesus, it is to possess and to secure God more 
surely. 'Tn my bed by night I sought Him whom 
my soul loveth : I sought Him and found Him not. 
I will arise and go about the city : in the streets and 
the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul lov- 
eth: I sought Him and I found Him not. The 
watchmen who keep the city found me. Have you 
seen Him whom my soul loveth? When I had a 
little passed by them, I found Him whom my 
soul loveth : I held Him, and I will not let 
Him go till I bring Him into my mother^s house'' 
(Cant. iii. i), into the inmost sanctuary of my 
soul, to live with Him forever. Ah ! give Him, then, 



694 • Communion for Religious. 

daily to her who can not Hve a single day without 
Him! 

The Christ of the Eucharist is still more desirous 
to give Himself to the Religious than she is to re- 
ceive Him,* for He loves her, lowly creature that she 
is, who has believed in Him, who has preferred Him 
to all else, and who wishes to live for Him alone. He 
loves her for her virginal purity and for the excel- 
lent gifts with which it has pleased Him to enrich 
her. His delights are to see and converse with her. 
''Arise, make haste," He says to her, ''O My beauti- 
ful one, and come!" Come into the secret of in- 
timacy. ''Show Me thy face, let thy voice sound in 
My ears : for thy voice is sweet and thy face comely" 
(Cant. li. lo). 

Jesus loves the Religious, and He wishes to find in 
her compassion for His sufferings, consolation in 
His trials, a faithful friend amid the general forget- 
fulness of His own, a spouse who receives Him and 
gives Him a secure shelter from the hatred and in- 
gratitude that pursue Him. "Open to Me, My be- 
loved, My sister undefiled ! My head is full of dew, 
and My locks of the drops of the night" (Cant. v. 2). 

Give, then, to the Religious that which ungrateful 
men disdain or reject. Let her communicate every 

*St. Chrysostom says that it is characteristic of the 
Eucharistic Christ to give Himself in order to satisfy 
the desire that He deigns to cherish for us : ''Neces- 
sarium est, dilectissimi, Mystcriorum discere miraculum, 
quodnam sit et quare sit datum et quce hujus rei utili- 
tas. Unum corpus eMcimur. Ut itaque non tantum per 
caritatem hoc iiamus; verum etiam ipsa re in illam mis- 
ceamur carnem, hoc nanique per escam eiHcitur, quam 
largitus est nobis, volens ostendere desiderium quod erga 
nos habet. Propterea semetipsum nobis immiscuit, et 
corpus suum in nos contemperavit, ut unum quid simus, 
ianquam corpus capiti coaptatum: ardenter enim aman-- 
tium hoc est'* (Horn. LXL, ad. pop. Antioch). 



Communion for Religious. 695 

day in reparation for those that do not communi- 
cate, or that communicate unworthily.* 

Let Jesus and His spouse possess each other 
without restriction, by every means possible here be- 
low, for their love increases daily by community of 
life, led in the service of the divine Father and of 
souls. The mutual penetration of heart to which 
prolonged intercourse leads ; above all, the labors un- 
dertaken and the sufferings endured together con- 
tribute to love, and tend to close and blissful union. 
Favor this spread of daily communion, and let noth- 
ing on the part of the "friends of the Spouse" f 
— ^^that is, His ministers — prevent His daily meeting 
with the spouse whose lily purity captivates Him : 
''Ego dilecto meo et dilectiis mens mihi, qui pascittir 
inter lilia'': ''I to My beloved, and My beloved to Me, 
who feedeth among the lilies" (Cant. vi. 2). 

*This is the thought of St Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, 
the founder of the great family of religious laics, the 
Brothers of the Christian Schools. He urges his sons 
to communicate often instead of the people of the world, 
who excuse themselves from doing so, some alleging their 
business affairs, others the pleasures of the world which 
they do not wish to forsake. Jesus Christ tells us that it 
shall be taken from him who has not and be given to 
him who has ; whence we may conclude, in respect to the 
Most Blessed Sacrament, that the graces prepared for 
those that turn their back on it will be given to those 
that have the happiness to approach it often. To profit 
by so great an advantage, hasten to communicate, go 
with faith. You will do very wrong by excusing your- 
self, since you have so many means for it and so great 
facility. Rest assured that, whatever excuse you may 
give to Jesus Christ to dispense yourself from communi- 
cating, He is not disposed to receive it (Med. for the 
second Sunday after Pentecost). 

V'Qui habet sponsam, sponsus est; amicus autem sponsi, 
qui Stat et audit eum, gaudio gaudet propter vocem 
sponsi" (John iii. 29). 



696 Communion for Religious. 

We can never transcend the desires of Our Lord. 
On a certain Good Friday, when Blessed Margaret 
was manifesting to Him her ardent desire to receive 
Him, and the suffering that her inabiUty to do so 
caused her, Jesus said to her: ''My daughter, thy 
desire has so deeply penetrated My Heart that, if I 
had not already instituted the Sacrament of love, I 
would do so now for thee V'^ 

The Religious makes profession of tending to the 
perfection of the evangelical virtues, because they, 
more than any others, facilitate the perfect service of 
God by removing the chief obstacles to sanctity, and 
by more explicitly fitting the soul for that service 
which is the supreme end of creation. This renders 
her a being essentially religious, that is, vowed and 
devoted to God alone. Although all Christians make 
profession of the true religion, yet she assumes as 
her own proper name* that of ''Religious.'' But the 
most perfect individual act of religion toward God, 
that which makes the soul participate more abun- 
dantly in the public sacrifice of the Mass, that which 
more completely surrenders the soul to God in love 
stimulated, in purity refined, in fidelity ratified by 
renew^ed declarations, is, assuredly, holy communion. 
Let the Religious tend, then, to the perfection of the 
virtue of religion by daily communion, as she does 
to that of poverty and obedience by acts that lead 
thereto. If the perfection of communion consists, 
above all, in excellence of dispositions, that is in a 
great measure realized by zeal to receive as often as 
possible, in order not to lose a single particle of the 
gift of God : ''Particula honi doni non te prcetereaf 
— "Let not the part of a good gift overpass thee!'* 
(Ecclus. xiv. 14). 

The sublimity of her vocation creates for the Re- 
*Vie et CEuvres, t. I. p. 290. 



Communion for Religious. 697 

ligious another need for daily communion, namely, 
her innate inabiHty to fulfil it as it ought to be ful- 
filled without this daily help. 

Her life is difficult. Entirely supernatural, it is 
established on the complete and universal subjuga- 
tion of nature, not only of its depraved instincts and 
low satisfactions, but of those joys and aspirations 
w^hich are lawful to him who, in the suite of Jesus 
Christ, has not made of these words the device of 
his life: ''Abneget semetipsum/' ''Let him deny 
himself !" 

The constitutive virtues of the religious state are 
the perfect virtues of Christianity, so perfect that the 
wise Legislator, not daring to prescribe them to all, 
has made them the object of a counsel proposed only 
to the best. Now, these virtues the Religious is 
bound to practice daily more perfectly, never ceasing 
to reproduce the divine Model still more preemi- 
nently. She will never equal Him, but He inces- 
santly urges her on with the words : ''Sequere me'' 
''Follow Me !" To pause under the weight of 
fatigue at any point of this rude path, determined no 
longer to make the constant effort that continued 
progress demands, is for a Religious a formal and 
culpable infidelity. 

And yet how greatly does the difficulty of making 
that effort increase as she advances in life ! The true 
merit of the religious life does not consist in immo- 
lating one's self by the holy profession, which 
might appear like the so-much-desired recompense 
of the sacrifices already accomplished by entrance 
into religion, and sustained during the period more 
or less long of probation. Fervor, youth, health, en- 
thusiasm, the novelty of obedience and illusions also 
— for those fiancees of Christ have not yet come in 
contact with the real difficulties of the religious life 



698 Conimunion for Religious. 

— wreathe and inebriate the victim, transforming 
her sacrifice into a joyous feast. But when, after 
some years, she meets constantly the same austeri- 
ties, the same obscure duties, the same chanting of 
the divine praises or adoration in the middle of the 
night, the same class-work, care of the sick or visit- 
ing the poor the whole day long, ah, then! When 
health begins to fail and strength grows weak, thus 
changing effort into suffering; with the evidences 
of the incurable weaknesses of her will and her 
natural repugnance to sacrifice, which have un- 
veiled her vanished illusions ; with the avowal she is 
forced to make of her little advancement in the 
reformation of her faults and the spiritual trans- 
formation of her nature ; with the experience of 
miseries that astonish her in others and the painful 
relations they engender; with the small success of 
her devotedness among souls and the ungrateful 
contradictions of the world — both sources of so 
much bitterness — ah! it is then that, to renew each 
morning her profession with firm determination ever 
to stand loyally by all her engagements, is for the 
Religious truly meritorious and sometimes heroic! 
Add to these difficulties inherent to their manner 
of life the few helps that Religious find along their 
path, and at times the absolute privation of them. 
To encourage them daily to renew the sacrifices of 
their religious profession, their compassionate 
Spouse daily renews under their eyes the oblation of 
the Sacrifice in which He immolates Himself to God 
for the salvation of mankind, and dies under a 
weight of sorrow, humiliation, and abandonment. To 
infuse into souls the strength of the same love, of the 
same immolation, our dear Lord offers to them gen- 
erously His immolated flesh, His streaming blood. 
His devoted soul, His Heart torn by abandonment 



Couimunion for Religious. 699 

« 

and drowned in bitterness. He says to them : ''Take 
ye and eat. Do this for a commemoration of Me ! 
Abide in Me, remain in My love. He who abides 
in Me finds in My love the strength to observe all 
My commandments, as love for My Father has made 
Me fulfil all His desires. Remain in Me, remain in 
My love, for he that abideth in Me beareth much 
fruit, and without Me ye can do nothing. The 
world will hate you, will persecute you, will expel 
you from your churches and monasteries. But 
have confidence in Me. Rest in Me. I have con- 
quered the world !'' 

O I beg of you, in pity for those beings so 
despoiled of everything, those souls of sacrifice and 
suffering, give them the daily Bread with which 
the valiant woman strengthened her servants early 
in the morning before sending them forth to their 
labor ! ''De node siirrexit deditque cibaria ancillis 
siiis/' ''She hath risen in the night and given victuals 
to her maidens.'' That woman of equal prudence and 
goodness is the Church, whose intentions it is our 
capital duty to fulfil. Truly, it would be difficult to 
excuse from hard-heartedness and want of sagacity 
the priest that would exact of a Religious efforts 
and sacrifices which represent the perfect accom- 
plishment of the duties of her state during the day 
without furnishing her with the help and strength 
of daily communion. 

Since daily communion is so proper for their 
state and so necessary for them to attain perfection, 
preachers in their instructions, confessors in their 
direction, superioresses in their chapt-ers to the com- 
munity, mistresses of novices in their conferences, 
should earnestly aim at keeping alive in the hearts 
of the Religious sovereign devotion toward the 
Blessed Sacrament, the living bond of union with 



700 Communion for Religious. 

Jesus Christ. Let them unceasingly rouse the de- 
sire of receiving it every day, habituating them- 
selves to making this great act the principle and the 
end of their whole life. Daily prayer, the divine 
Office, the Rosary, pious reading, silence, manual 
labor, classes, care of the sick, obedience, the morti- 
fications of the Rule, humiliations, sufferings, trials 
sent by divine Providence — all should take as 
distinctly as possible the character of preparation for 
or thanksgiving after holy communion. In this way 
souls abide in Jesus Christ and He abides in them. 
They will then, in a great measure, realize the ideal 
of the religious life, which Jesus alone led in its per- 
fection — Jesus their Model, the true Religious of 
God — as He Himself expressed in these memorable 
words : "As I live by the Father, so he that eateth 
Me the same also shall live by Me.'' * 

*By the Rev. A. Tesniere, S.S.S., D.D., Communion for 
Religious, 



CHAPTER LXIV. 

Commentarg on tbe Decree ot tbe SacreD Con^re^a^ 

tion ot tbe Council (December 20, 1905) 

IRegarDing Dailis Communion* 

>J^ HE Decree declares : ''No one in the state of 
^^ grace approaching the holy table with a right 
and pious intention must be prevented from doing 
so: 'Ita ut nemo, qui in statu gratice sit et cum r^cta 
piaque mente ad S, Mensam accedat, prohiberi ab 
ipsa possit/ '' 

It declares that, ''although it is expedient for those 
that make frequent or daily communion to be free 
from venial sins, at least fully deliberate ones, and 
from affection to such sins, nevertheless, it suffices 
to be free from mortal sin and to have resolved never 
again to commit it: 'SuMcit nihilominus ut culpis 
mortalibus vacent, cum proposito se nunquam in 
posterum peccaturos' '' 

It forbids confessors to keep from daily com- 
munion any one in the state of grace who wishes to 
communicate with a good intention : ''Caveant con- 
fessarii ne a frequenti seu quotidiana communione 
quemquam avertant, qui in statu gratice reperiatur 
et recta mente accedat/' 

I. In its exposition of the question, the Decree 
commences by referring to a well-known text of the 
Council of Trent: '^Optaret quidem sacrosancta 
Synodus ut in singulis Missis iideles a)dstantes non 
solum spiriiuali aifectu, sed sacramentali etiam Eu- 
charistice perceptione communicarent/' And it de- 
clares that "these words clearly express the desire of 
the Church to see all the faithful nourishing them- 



702 Commentary on the Decree. 

selves daily with the celestial food, in order that they 
may draw from it fruits of sanctification more and 
more perfect." * 

This paragraph determines the definitive interpre- 
tation of these celebrated words of the Council of 
Trent. The opponents of daily communion refuse 
to see therein the Church's expression of a true and 
sincere desire relative to daily communion, and the 
invitation given to all Christians to receive it every 
day if they can every day assist at Mass. ''Optaret/' 
some say, "the Council would desire,'' if it were pos- 
sible and fitting ; but being certainly neither one nor 
the other, the Council very prudently contented itself 
with simply expressing a conditional wish, and not 
a determined desire. Others even pretend that these 
words of the Council, uttered to justify private 
Masses at which no one communicates, have no con- 
nection with the practice of communion, and that, 
consequently, an argument in favor of daily com- 
munion can not be found in them. But in our day, 
it can no longer be doubted that the Council of 
Trent, infallibly expressing the sentiments of the 
Church, ''desires that all the faithful daily approach 
the heavenly banquet: ^Qitce verba satis aperte pro- 
dunf EcclesicB desideriumut om^ies Chris fifideles 
illo coelesti convivio quotidie reiiciantur.' "" 

11. Henceforth, it is impossible to deny that the 
doctrine of daily communion proposed to all Chris- 
tians is founded on the fourth petition of the ''Our 
Father" ; nor can any one condemn, either logically 
or exegetically, those who interpret it chiefly in the 
Eucharistic sense, without, however, excluding from 
it the demand for corporal bread. "For," says the 

'^''Qu(u verba satis aperte produnt Ecclesice desiderium 
ut omnes ChristiUdeles illo ccelesti convivio quotidie reiici- 
antur, et pleniores ex eo sanctiUcationis hauriant eifectus.'* 



Commentary on the Decree. 703 

Decree in its second paragraph, *Svhat the Saviour 
orders us to ask in the 'Lord's Prayer' by the words : 
'Panem nostrum quotidiamcm/ is, according to the 
almost unanimous opinion of the Fathers, less the 
material bread than the daily reception of the Eu- 
charistic Bread: 'Insiiper, quod in Oratione Domi- 
nica exposci jiibet Panem nostrum qiiotidianiim, per 
id SS. Ecclesi(£ Patres fere unanimes docent non 
niaterialem panem, corporis escam, quam panem eu- 
charisticum quotidie siimendum infelligi deheref '^ 
We must, however, remark that the Decree does not 
condemn the Fathers and the Doctors who interpret 
the fourth petition by corporal bread. But it im- 
plicitly condemns those that exclude the possibility 
of a second literal sense referring to the Bread of 
the soul ; and it affirms the lawfulness of this latter 
interpretation, which is the chief basis of the doc- 
trine and practice of daily and general communion. 

III. Another consideration, as touching as it is 
weighty, is that which declares that the wish of the 
Church in favor of daily communion for all the 
faithful is conformed to the desire with which the 
Saviour was possessed when He instituted the Eu- 
charist, and which, indeed, led Him to do so : ''Hu- 
jusmodi vota cum illo cohcerent desiderio quo 
Christus Dominus incensus hoc divinum Sacr amen- 
tum instituit/' 

Daily communion, consequently, offered to all, 
very far from being a chimerical dream or a piece of 
rash audacity, presents no danger to the honor of 
the Sacrament and the good of souls, and is the 
normal measure of the Gift its divine Institutor 
wishes to make to us. It is not offered to an elite 
portion of the flock, but to all who have need of His 
flesh, in order to live of His life and to secure to 
themselves its eternal possession. Now, all men 



704 Commentary on the Decree. 

belong to this necessitous class. Jesus presents 
Himself not as a rare aliment to make a holiday 
feast more sumptuous, but as the daily bread neces- 
sary for the support of ordinary life, and which 
must in consequence be eaten every day. This dis- 
tribution of the Bread of life is as large, abundant, 
and infinite as His love for man. It is the measure 
of His Heart : ''Quantum isti, tantvim ille, nee sump- 
tus minuittirr The desire of His Heart is to supply 
the daily needs of all men : needs of restoration, 
needs of conservation, needs of action, needs of spir- 
itual fecundity and constant progress, even to the 
perfection and plenitude of eternal life. 

In this pious recapitulation of the Saviour's de- 
sires, made by the Decree, we catch the sweet echo 
of His tender and burning words at the Last Sup- 
per: "Desiderio desideravi hoe pascha mandueare 
vobiseuni" : 'With desire have I desired to eat this 
pasch with you.'' These words were the immediate 
preparation for the gift of the Eucharist. We hear 
in them the vibrant echo of the order given by the 
vSaviour at the time of the revelation of His Heart, 
when He complained ''of receiving in return for all 
His eagerness to shower His benefits upon us, only 
coldness and rebuffs ;'' for He then said : "Above all 
shall you receive Me in communion as often as obe- 
dience will permit you.'' This was the means desig- 
nated to console Him and render some return for 
His love. 

The rule which ought henceforth to inspire all the 
distributers of the Bread of life is, then, daily com- 
munion for all whom they can render capable of it. 

IV". To show how much the Saviour had at heart 
the daily and universal gift of His flesh and blood, 
the Sacred Congregation thus expresses itself: "It 
was not only once nor in ambiguous terms that the 



Commentary on the Decree. 705 

divine Master taught the necessity of eating His 
ilesh and of drinking His blood, as He did in these 
words : 'This is the Bread come down from heaven. 
It is not Hke the manna, which your fathers ate in 
the desert, but which did not prevent them from 
dying. He who eats this Bread will live forever.' 
By comparing the Bread of angels with material 
bread and with manna, the Saviour clearly incul- 
cates upon His disciples that as the body is nour- 
ished daily with bread, and as the Hebrews were 
fed in the desert with the manna which fell every 
morning from the skies, so the Christian soul can 
daily nourish herself and repair her strength by 
partaking of the Bread of life : ' Quemadmodum 
pane corpus qitotidie mttritur et manna in deserto 
Hebrcei qitotidie refecti sunt, ita animam chris- 
tianam ccelesti pane vesd posse qitotidie ac 
recreariy This is the reply to those who pretend 
that nowhere in the Gospel is it taught that com- 
munion may be received every day, and that the 
argument drawn from the daily reception of the 
manna, as alleged by the Saviour, has no connection 
with daily communion. It also justifies those who 
see in the choice of bread — the daily nourishment 
of the greater part of the human race — the sacra- 
mental sign of the Eucharist, the manifestation of 
the divine Institutor's intention of offering it to all 
as their daily sustenance. 

V. There are others who lose sight of the needs 
of human infirmity, so inclined to evil, and of the 
sincere, condescension of the Saviour to~- satisfy 
them, and they look upon communion principally as 
a recompense of man's virtue. They, above all, 
make it a duty of conscience toward God. That, 
certainly, ought not to be neglected ; but it is, never- 
theless, not the chief purpose aimed at by the 



7o6 Commentary on the Decree, 

Saviour in the gift of communion. Let us hearken 
to these words : ''The desire of Jesus Christ and the 
Church to see all the faithful daily approaching the 
celestial banquet aims, above all, at this result; 
namely, that the faithful, uniting themselves to God 
by the Sacrament, may draw from it the strength 
to moderate their evil inclinations, efface their daily 
venial faults, and shun the mortal falls to which hu- 
m.an fragility is exposed. It is, then, not princi- 
pally to procure the honor and glory of God, nor is 
it as a reward of virtue that the Holy Eucharist is 
offered to the communicant." The Council of Trent 
calls the Eucharist, also, ''the antidote which de- 
livers from daily faults and preserves from mortal 
sins.'' * 

It is evident that this imperfect idea of Christ's 
intention in the institution of communion has en- 
gendered all the severity imposed upon souls in per- 
mitting them frequent communion. If it was His 
own honor that He expected above all else, could 
souls ever be sufficiently pure, sufficiently virtuous, 
sufficiently recollected to receive Jesus Christ in 
communion? Could they ever make sufficient 
efforts, gain sufficient victories, merit sufficiently 
the reward of the Eucharist, the pledge and 
foretaste of eternal beatitude, if it were this mo- 
tive of reward that led them above all con- 
siderations to the holy table? Oh, no! mercifully 
replies the Sovereign Pastor, who has penetrated 
the true meaning of the Heart of Jesus Christ. 
The first property of communion is to be a support 
against weakness, a preservative and remedy against 
human infirmity : "Sacramenta propter homines f^ 
The Bread of angels, in becoming the Bread of via- 
tors, is adapted to their miseries. If in giving it 

*S. Aug. Serm. LVII. in Matt. De Orat. Dom. V. 7- 



Commentary on the Decree, 707 

Christ can become indifferent to His own honor, He 
is satisfied with the state of grace and an act of piety 
as an immediate preparation for receiving. If the 
heavenly bread is not meant as a recompense of ef- 
forts to receive it well; if it is sufficient to reward 
the most heroic far above what they deserve, Jesus 
disdains not to abase Himself to the most lowly, in 
order to encourage them. The sacred Host con- 
tains the same Christ who counseled the most 
sublime detachment, and who lauded the farthing of 
the poor widow. It contains and it gives the great 
King who prepares a magnificent marriage feast for 
His Son. Inviting all the poor and miserable of the 
highways and byways to take part in it, He asks 
them, in order to show themselves worthy of the 
honor done them, merely to cover their poverty with 
the nuptial garment. Lastly, it contains and be- 
stows the supreme Remunerator, who decrees beati- 
tude to the martyrs come out victorious from perse- 
cution for justice' sake, but who does not deprive of 
it those who have given a morsel of bread or a cup 
of water to the needy, a word of consolation to the 
afflicted. 

VI. The Decree says, moreover, that the custom 
of daily communion declined only with the relaxa- 
tion of fervor, and that it was under the lamentable 
influence of this abasement of souls, dragged down 
by Jansenism to its own level, that the dispositions 
for frequent and daily communion began to be dis- 
cussed. These dispositions were made more and 
more difficult and declared necessary, so that this 
pretended increase of respect for communion was 
born in reality of a diminution of piety toward the 
Holy Eucharist. By diminishing the frequency of 
holy communion, they, in fact, dissolved the vigor 
of the Christian life; they lived less of the life of 



7o8 Commentary on the Decree, 

Jesus Christ; they did in reaUty return toward 
paganism in their morals. It prepared the way for 
the invasion of the sensuaUsm of the eighteenth cen- 
tury and of the naturahsm of the nineteenth, in 
which the Vatican Council beheld concentrated all 
the definitive heresies and apostasies of the Christian 
world. How, in effect, could it escape such a de- 
gree of decay in faith when, under the pretext of 
that false respect, stigmatized by St. Cyril of Alex- 
andria as ''diabolical piety,'' the Jansenistic school 
had so far ''pushed its severity as to exclude entire 
classes of the faithful, such as business men and 
married people," that is, the immense majority of 
Christians : ''Quin etiam eo severitatis ventum est, 
ut a frequentanda ccelesti mensa integri coetus ex- 
cluder entiir, uti mercatoruni, aut eorum qui essenf 
matrimonio conjunctif 

VII. "Frequent and daily communion, inasmuch 
as it is ardently desired by Our Lord and by the 
Catholic Church, ought to be accessible to all Chris- 
tians of every rank and condition ; so that no one ap- 
proaching the holy table in a state of grace and with 
an upright and pious intention can be turned away." 

This first declaration is the chief one, and all 
others are but consequences or explanations of it. 
It lays down clearly two general principles : the first, 
founded upon the desires of Christ and the Church, 
declares the lawfulness of communion, not only fre- 
quent, but daily, for all the faithful of every condi- 
tion ; the second determines the two special disposi- 
tions necessary and sufficient for it. 

Daily communion received by all Christians is 
conformed to the formal intention of Jesus Christ 
and the Church: ''Utpote a Christo Domino et a 
Catholica Ecclesia optatissima/^ Jesus and the 
Church ardently desire to see it practiced by all 



Commentary on the Decree. 709 

their children. They have not decreed the law under 
pain of grave sin, because they do not wish this most 
benevolent offer of eternal life to be for men ab- 
sorbed in the things of earth an occasion of multi- 
plied death. But it is certain that, when souls fulfil 
this desire, when they communicate every day, they 
are entering into the intentions and satisfying the 
wishes of Jesus and the Church : ''Optatissima/' 

VIII. The only conditions required and sufficient 
to render lawful the call of the pastors and the par- 
ticipation of all Christiahs in daily communion, to 
take away all danger to the honor of the divine 
Bread and the good of souls, and, on the contrary, to 
make it profitable to both the one and the other, are 
''that the communicant should be in the state of 
grace, and should approach the holy table with an 
upright and pious intention. No one presenting 
himself with these two dispositions can ever be sent 
away: 'Ita tit nemo, qui in statu gratice sit et cum 
recta plaque mente ad S, Mensam accedat, prohiberi 
ab ea possit/ " 

Behold a rule which contrasts strangely with those 
that have prevailed almost everywhere up to the 
present. To be admitted to daily communion, it suf- 
fices to be in the state of grace, that is, actually free 
from the stain of mortal sin; and to be led to the 
holy table by an upright and pious intention. 
''What! so few dispositions exacted for the im- 
mense honor, the precious privilege of daily com- 
munion?" will exclaim with astonishment they who 
esteem numberless dispositions of propriety neces- 
sary for frequent communion. We answer, Yes ! 

But let us not make a mistake ! 

The state of grace is not so small a thing, not a 
mere resource, a common state tolerated, perhaps, in 
little and ordinary souls, but unworthy of elevated 



710 Commentary on the Decree. 

souls alone fit for daily communion. The state of 
grace is the very foundation of the Christian life, 
a divine gift, which no one can ever merit, and which 
Jesus acquired by His blood. It is the supernatural 
soil, fertile and vivifying, in which all divine virtues 
germinate and take root. ''The state of grace," says 
the Council of Trent, ''consists not merely in ex- 
emption from sin, but in the renewal and sanctifica- 
tion of the interior man by the free reception of 
grace and divine gifts. From unjust, man becomes 
just by the state of grace*; from an enemy he be- 
comes a friend, and the heir by hope of eternal life'' 
{De Justificatione, Ch. vi.). "At the moment of 
justification,'' says the Council again, "through the 
merits of the Passion of Jesus, the love of God is 
shed into the heart of the sinner and remains there. 
Man is ingrafted on Christ, through whom he re- 
ceives the gifts of faith, hope, and charity ; for faith, 
if not completed by hope and charity, would be 
powerless to unite perfectly to Christ, and to make 
of the justified His living member" (Ch. vii.). 
The state of grace renders a man participant of the 
divine nature, makes him a child of God by adop- 
tion, a member of Jesus Christ, a living branch of 
the vine, of which Jesus is the trunk. By the state 
of grace, man lives in Jesus and in God. He loves 
God and God loves him. He abides in His love, and 
he is vitally united to Him, living of His life by the 
fundamental and stable communication of sanctify- 
ing grace, which the uninterrupted presence of the 
Holy Spirit pours incessantly into his soul, and by 
the effusions that come to him through the channels 
of the Sacraments. When he acts, all his naturally 
good w^orks become holy and meritorious for eternal 
life by virtue of the supernatural elevation communi- 
cated to them by the foundation of sanctifying grace. 



Commentary on the Decree. yii 

Now the state of grace is of such a nature that it 
can be easily lost by mortal sin, though it can not 
be substantially diminished nor altered by venial 
sin. In every baptized or justified soul exempt from 
mortal sin, it subsists and remains in its substantial 
integrity, however numerous may be the venial sins, 
even the most deliberate, or however the affections 
may cling to them. No doubt, such faults and, 
above all, such affections chill the fervor of divine 
charity, between which and the state of grace there 
is but a shade of difference. No doubt they retard 
the activity of the supernatural life, which is in- 
volved in the state of grace. But they do not dimin- 
ish the substance of sanctifying grace ; they merely 
enervate or enfeeble its powers of action. Without 
doubt, again, it ordinarily happens that, under the 
number and relative gravity of venial sins, the will 
inclines to fall into mortal sin by a new and more 
serious weakness. But inasmuch as mortal sin has 
not destroyed it, by severing the bond of love which 
united the soul to God and conducted into it the un- 
interrupted flow of the divine life, the state of grace 
remains intact in the soul and sustains its funda- 
mental life and hohness. 

What hindrance, therefore, can prevent this 
branch, already attached to the vine and vivified by 
its sap, from aspiring to new increase by com- 
munion ? What can prevent this member, united to 
Jesus, its Head, living by His life, from imbibing 
new life from communion? How could this Father 
feel repugnance to nourishing the child of His own 
blood, since it lives of His life and bears resemblance 
to Him in all its features, though veiled under the 
dust of venial sin ? 

Evidently, the difficulties that the majority of 
theologians of the last three centuries have in ac- 



712 Commentary on the Decree. 

cepting as sufficient for daily communion the habit- 
ual disposition of the state of grace alone, come 
from their not making enough account of the poAver 
and greatness of this state. The robe of innocence, 
washed in the blood of Christ, they regard at most 
as an undergarment in which it would not be proper 
or honorable to present one's self ; and so, of neces- 
sity, a more sumptuous one, of perfect purity and 
ornamented with the precious embroidery of the vir- 
tues, must be provided. 

He who reasons thus, forgets tw'o things : that 
these more excellent dispositions are, in fact, the 
portion of only some chosen souls ; and that Christ 
wishes to be the daily nourishment of all. He for- 
gets, also, that, by the will of its divine Author, it 
is in the very nature of communion to efface venial 
sins ; and that it is losing sight of this most oppor- 
tune and beneficent efficacy, to permit communion 
to those only who, by other means, have been previ- 
ously purified. This would be to subordinate the 
power of the Sacrament to that of human action and, 
in fact, to deprive of the great fruit of an increase of 
sanctifying grace, ex opere operato, the most im- 
portant of all, a multitude of souls found incapable 
of the most perfect dispositions. And the Church, 
as a mother, alarmed at the loss of supernatural life 
sustained by so many souls unable to preserve it 
without the help of daily communion, says to all her 
ministers of the Bread of life: No! No! do not re- 
ject from the daily participation in the Eucharist 
any of those who are in the state of grace ! Not 
only they who have been long in that state and who 
ordinarily persevere therein, but all those that are 
actually in it at the moment they present themselves 
to communicate, were they returned to it only one in- 
stant previously by the remission of their sins ! And 



Conifiientary on the Decree. 713 

if, fallen back again into mortal sin, they again pre- 
sent themselves, and you judge them capable of 
absolution, because their repentance and their firm 
purpose of amendment seem to you sincere, urge 
them again to the holy table; for they have again 
put on the wedding-garment, and they have need, 
in order not to fall again, of receiving the Bread of 
Hfe ! 

He who is ahve has the right and duty to preserve 
his life. For the communion of to-morrow, the 
same disposition is necessary as for that of to-day, 
and nothing more. Why should the Paschal or the 
monthly communion be given at so cheap a rate, 
while more frequent communions cost so much 
more? Each one of them contains the same Christ, 
whom it has pleased to become the necessary food 
of all His members, from whom He exacts in return 
nothing more than that they should be living in the 
state of grace. No one has a right to interfere in 
the constitution of the sacramental economy in or- 
der to modify Christ's institutions. There is some- 
thing rash in showing one's self more difficult than 
He. O my priests, says the Church, do not keep 
away from daily communion any of those that ap- 
proach thereto clothed with the state of grace: ''Ut 
nemo qui in statu gratice sit prohiberi possitT 

"St. Philip Neri, who devoted his hfe to the 
sanctification of the young men of Rome, and whose 
testimony comes to us with the double weight of 
sanctity and exceptional experience, used to say that 
frequent communion, together with devotion to the 
Blessed Virgin, were not only the best, but that they 
were the only means of preserving the faith and 
morals of young men and of helping them to rise 
again after their falls. How he carried out this 
principle in practice will be seen by the following 



714 Commentary on the Decree. 

example : A student came to him one day and begged 
his assistance in ridding himself of some evil habits 
to which he had long been a slave. The saint en- 
couraged the young man, gave him good advice, 
and after hearing his confession absolved him and 
sent him away happy, with the permission to receive 
holy communion on the morrow. Tf you should be 
so unfortunate as to fall again, come and see me at 
once,' he added, 'and in the meantime put your en- 
tire confidence in God.' The next evening the youth 
returned to the saint to confess a relapse. Philip 
treated him exactly as before, encouraged him to 
struggle bravely, absolved him and allowed him to 
approach the holy table the next day. The student, 
harassed by the tyranny of the evil habit, and yet 
eager to return to God, drew from this compas- 
sionate direction and from the reception of the Holy 
Eucharist, such energy and constancy of purpose 
that for thirteen days in succession he returned 
daily to the saint's confessional. Finally, charity 
carried the day, and Our Lord gained a new recruit. 
The young man made such rapid strides in the way 
of perfection that St. Philip soon judged him worthy 
of aspiring to the priesthood. He eventually be- 
came an Oratorian, edified all Rome by his zeal and 
his virtues, and died still young in the odor of sanc- 
tity. To the end of his life he never wearied of 
telling the story of his conversion in order to en- 
courage sinners and to make young men understand 
that their only hope lay in frequent communion. '^' * 
IX. The state of grace is the habitual disposition, 
the fundamental disposition for communion. But 
as every rational act should have an actual disposi- 
tion or an intention, that is, an immediate conformity 

*Anecdote from The Sentinel of the Blessed Sacrament, 
inserted by the Editor. 



Commentary on the Decree. 715 

of the soul and its powers, which conformity varies 
according to the nature of the acts to be ac- 
compHshed, the Decree exacts of every communicant 
the joining to the state of grace "an upright and 
pious intention :" ''Et cum recta plaque mente ac- 
cedat/' 

In what this right and pious intention consists, 
the second Rule informs us in these terms : "In this, 
that the communicant in communicating does not da 
so through habit, vanity, or purely human motives, 
but from the will to please God, to unite himself 
more closely to Him by charity, and to apply this di- 
vine Remedy to his infirmities and defects." 

Hence "a right intention," in order to perform 
with the supernatural rectitude (demanded by a 
good act) a serious act, which involves the con- 
science, and of which God will be the judge : Mens 
recta. The rectitude of an action consists in perform- 
ing it wnth a view conformed to its nature and end, in 
harmonizing the will with the excellence and the end 
of the work we are accomplishing. Rectitude, then, 
excludes voluntary insincerity, evasion, hypocrisy. 
It excludes everything that could vitiate an act in 
its nature, means, or results. Thus, they would fail 
in rectitude by communicating through habit, or 
through the influence of an established custom, not 
to be remarked and blamed, perhaps, for failing to 
do so: ''Usui non indulgeatf' To do a thing 
through pure habit is to follow a routine, to yield 
to some pressure from without, to conform to a 
fashion, to allow one's self to be influenced instead 
of resolving for one's self. It is to be wanting in 
good-will, I mean the upright and sincere will which 
God, who looks at the heart, desires to find in those 
that approach Him : ''Mens recta in eo- est ut . . ^ 
Usui non indidgeat/' 



7i6 Commentary on the Decree. 

It is the same with all "the other human motives 
which might lead one to communicate : 'Ant humanis 
rationihiisf " Such, for example, as interest or fear : 
fear to displease by not communicating ; interest to 
retain some position by communicating. Again, 
some human motive having a creature in view, thus 
turning the supernatural act of communion from the 
necessary end to which by its nature it is borne, 
namely, the glory of God and the eternal goodness of 
the soul. Such a motive deviates from supernatural 
rectitude and can not legitimately dispose the soul 
for the act of communion. A person influenced by 
such reasons only, even were he in the state of 
grace, can not be admitted to the holy table : 
''Humanis rationibns non indulgeat/' 

Having enumerated the causes which might fal- 
sify the intention of the communicant, the Sacred 
Congregation indicates some of those that would 
render it ''surely right and pious." Let them ap- 
proach the holy table ''to please God : 'Ut Dei placito 
satisfacere relit;' '' to satisfy the goodness of the di- 
vine Father who desires to give us His celestial 
Bread every day, since He orders us to petition for 
it; to content the merciful desires of the Heart of 
Jesus Christ, of which we are certain; to perform 
a religious act which of its nature honors God and, 
consequently, is agreeable to Him : "Ut Dei placito 
satisfacere velit!' Let them approach the Sacra- 
ment whichj by institution, augments divine charity 
in the soul by uniting it more closely to God : "Et ei 
arctiiis caritate conjungif' Nothing is more ad- 
vantageous to the soul than to love God, and no limit 
being put to the progress of this love we can but 
praise those that desire to receive the Eucharist 
daily, in order to increase daily in their soul, as long 
as life lasts, the love of our good God. Lastly, let 



Commentary on the Decree. yiy 

them approach who want to find ''in this divine 
Remedy the strength to resist their weakness and 
defects : 'Ac divino illo pharmaco sitis iniirmitatibus 
ac defectibus occurreref '' This last intention may 
be, perhaps, less noble, less perfect than the preced- 
ing in the reception of daily communion; but how 
necessary it is for all, however pious and religious 
they may be! Sinners by our origin, deeply agi- 
tated and disorganized, constantly solicited by the 
seduction of created goods to enjoy a larger share 
of them than is reasonable, we have perpetually to 
guard ourselves, to rise from our falls, or to purify 
ourselves. ''Our faults are daily," says St. Am- 
brose ; "let the remedy, also, be daily.'' Again, God 
is pleased that we should daily purify ourselves by 
His flesh and His blood, for "His will is our sancti- 
fication.'' St. James says, "To keep one's self un- 
spotted from this world, is religion clean and unde- 
filed before God and the Father." This reason alone, 
namely, preservation from sin and the cure of its 
remains, the correction of defects and the repres- 
sion of the passions, the help afforded the weakness 
and incurable misery of a nature radically vitiated, 
is sufficient to justify daily communion. Such an 
intention is "right and pious." Of this there can be 
no doubt. Let him, then, who, without excluding 
the more elevated intentions of pleasing God and of 
increasing His love in his heart, feels urged most of 
all by his own misery to recur to communion, ap- 
proach thereto daily. That is an intention very 
right and very pious, which honors the blessed Eu- 
charist as the Remedy par excellence, by applying it 
to spiritual evils as their cure, for so willed the di- 
vine Institutor when He said of it : "Take ye all, 
and eat. This is My body. . . . Drink ye 
all of this. For this is My blood . . . shed 



7i8 Cormnentary on the Decree. 

for many unto remission of sins. In remissionem 
peccatorumr 

X. By restricting to the simple state of grace and 
a religious intention the dispositions necessary and 
sufficient for daily communion, does not the Sacred 
Congregation suppose dispositions better and purity 
more perfect than can be brought to it? No, cer- 
tainly not, and the third Rule is formulated, as fol- 
lows : '* Although it is very advantageous for those 
that make frequent or daily communion to be free 
from venial, at least fully deliberate sins and from 
all affection to such sins, yet it suffices for them to 
be exempt from mortal transgressions and have the 
resolution to commit them no more. Possessed of 
this firm purpose, it is impossible for them to com- 
municate daily and not free themselves by degrees 
even from venial sins and affection to them." 

Thus the Sacred Congregation recognizes the 
great advantages of being purified from venial sins 
before communicating: ''Maxime expediat ut fre- 
quenti et quotidiana conimimione utentes, venialibus 
sint expertesf' This most perfect purity opens the 
soul more freely to the coming of Christ. It disposes 
it better for union with Him by love, inasmuch as 
it proves a closer conformity of man's will with that 
of God ; and there is no doubt that the divine Spouse, 
who ''feeds among the lilies," delights in manifesting 
Himself to the pure soul, and making it taste the 
heavenly consolations of which He is the inexhausti- 
ble source. 

That it may not be thought that purity absolutely 
perfect, free even from faults of surprise and weak- 
ness, is easily attainable and a state accessible to 
many, the Sacred Congregation is satisfied with 
holding up as very advantageous a state of purity 
less elevated, less rare, namely, ''exemption from de- 



Commentary on the Decree, yig 

liberate venial sins and affection to them : 'Veniali- 
bus peccatis, saltern plene deliheratis, eontmque af- 
fectit sint expertes.' '' This state is, indeed, easier, 
although it exacts a great spirit of sacrifice and care- 
ful vigilance over self to reach it and to maintain 
one's self in it. By this most indulgent limitation of 
the desirable dispositions, the Decree manifests its 
absolute reprobation of the proposition of Baius, 
already condemned by Pope Alexander VIII., a 
proposition which calls for ''the purest love of God 
with no mixture of imperfection in those who desire 
to communicate.'' To exact freedom from venial 
faults, even from those committed without full de- 
liberation and affection, as not a few of the adver- 
saries of daily communion have done, was not, in- 
deed, to adhere formally to the condemned doctrine, 
though it came very dangerously near it, since the 
difference between freedom from every venial sin, 
even indeliberate, and pure love without imperfec- 
tion, is not very pronounced. 

Although exemption from deliberate venial . sins 
be very advantageous, and may, perhaps, be ex- 
pected from souls of very good will ; although it be 
very well, also, to create it and cultivate it carefully, 
yet such exemption is not necessary even for daily 
communion. 'Tt suffices to be free from mortal sin 
with the firm purpose not to commit it again : 'Siif- 
■ficif nihilomimis lit cidpis mortaUhiis vacent, cum 
proposito se mtnquam in posteriim peccaturos/ "" 
This firm purpose is not a new disposition added by 
the Decree to that of the state of o^race and the right 
intention. It forms implicitly a part of the state of 
grace which, in the adult, is attachment to God above 
all else and, consequently, the resolution of never 
resisting His will in any grave affair ; for that would 
be to separate from Him by the revolt of mortal sin. 



720 Commentary on the Decree. 

Now, ''this firm purpose, if sincere and sustained 
by daily communion, can not fail sooner or later to 
have the happy result of freeing the soul from venial 
faults and all affection to them : 'Quo sincero aniini 
proposito, fieri non potest quin qiiotidie communi- 
cant es a peccatis etiam venialihiis, ah eorumqiie af- 
fectu sensim se expediant/ "' The opponents of 
daily communion hold that only they can be admitted 
who no longer commit deliberate venial sins and 
who have overcome every attachment, every affec- 
tion to such sins. Even to those that possess these 
two conditions, they are rather reserved in granting 
frequent communion, which shows that they expect 
this double result much more from man's own ef- 
forts than from the grace of the Sacrament, and that 
they strangely exaggerate the conditions necessary 
for its reception. The Sacred Congregation de- 
clares that habitual venial sin is never an obstacle to 
communion, even daily, and that it is one of the 
properties of communion to efface stains and to de- 
stroy bonds, but on condition that against those 
faults which happen, sad to say, daily, we fortify 
ourselves every day with ''this antidote which frees 
us from daily faults," according to the word already 
quoted of the Council of Trent : "Antidotum quo 
liberemur a culpis quotidianis." "^ 

In connection with this commentary it is quite in 
order to reflect upon the following words of Mgr. 
John S. Vaughan, in Thoughts for All Times: "The 
desire on the part of Our Lord to be wher- 
ever a human heart beats, or an adoring soul 
lives, though a most astounding effect of divine 
charity, is surpassed by the institution of the Sacra- 
ment of holy communion. The great Lover of 

*The foregoing is taken from an article by Pere Tesniere, 
published in The Sentinel of the Blessed Sacrament. 



Commentary on the Decree. 721 

souls would be not only present, not only in the 
closest proximity, but in actual union with each soul 
His hands have made. 'My flesh is meat indeed. My 
blood is drink indeed. Who eateth My flesh, and 
drinketh My blood, abideth in Me and I in him' 
(John vi. 57). He truly and actually enters our 
souls ; occupies our hearts ; reposes within us as 
within a living tabernacle, and so possesses our very 
being, when we place no obstacle in His way, that 
we may justly exclaim with St. Paul : 'I live ; now not 
I, but Christ liveth in me' (Gal. ii. 20). There 
in the very center of our soul He holds His 
court. 'My delight is to be with the children of 
men' (Prov. viii. 31). 'As the living Father 
hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he 
that eateth Me, the same shall live by Me' (John 
vi. 58). 

''It is impossible for any one to think seriously 
of what holy communion really is, without feeling, 
if I may so express myself, bewildered, over- 
whelmed, and almost confounded by the undreamed- 
of and wholly unparalleled depths of divine con- 
descension it supposes. It is so profound and 
unfathomable a mystery, it indicates a charity so 
measureless and infinite, that one feels almost as if 
one dare not think of it, lest the thought should 
crush and paralyze one's heart and senses. A kind 
of spiritual tremor, or vertigo, seems to seize upon 
one, such as is experienced in the physical order on 
looking fearfully and fitfully from the beetling edge 
of some gigantic height, down a measureless fall of 
sheer precipitous rock. 

"There is nothing on earth that can compare with 
this union. No love less than infinite love could 
have devised or contrived half so beauteous or half 
so sumptuous a banquet for the weary pilgrim, 



722 Commentary on the Decree. 

wending his way along the dusty road of Hfe to the 
great city of God. 

''Further than this we can not go, at least not in 
this life. There is nothing between this and the 
beatific vision itself. In the adorable Eucharist, we 
have all that we shall ever have in heaven. When 
the consecrated particle rests upon our tongue, we 
hold within us all that constitutes the essential bliss 
of the saints in eternal glory. The difference is 
merely that we fail to realize it. We possess it, but 
without being able to estimate what we possess. If 
by some stupendous miracle our eyes were suddenly 
opened, we should find that we were really in 
heaven ; or rather, that heaven itself had come down 
upon us and entered into our soul. How countless 
are the ways in which God proves His love for 
menr 



CHAPTER LXV. 

Sanctit^im ©race* 

^ANCTiFYiNG grace, otherwise called the state of 
J^-^ grace, is a certain state in which I was put by 
baptism — in which, doing good works, I merit 
heaven — which grows upon me by every such good 
work done, and by every Sacrament worthily re- 
ceived — a state from which I fall by mortal sin, and 
which I recover by repentance — a state, dying in 
which I am sure to go to heaven, and dying out of 
which I am sure to be lost eternally. Sanctifying 
grace then is a very important thing: it is, in fact, 
the most important thing in life to a Christian. His 
lifelong occupation should be to guard and increase 
this treasure. To guard it, as his Saviour bids him : 
''Watch ye therefore, because ye know not the day 
nor the hour : take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye 
know not when the time is when the lord of the 
house cometh, lest coming on a sudden he find you 
sleeping ; and what I say to you I say to all. Watch" 
(Matt. XXV. 13; Mark xiii. 33-37). To increase it, 
by good works and Sacraments, as his Saviour again 
bids him : 'Traffic till I come'' (Luke xix. 13). Our 
Lord speaks of "watching'' as servants sit up for 
their master, not knowing at what hour of the night, 
early or late, he may be coming back : neither do I 
know when Our Lord will come again to judge the 
earth, or, what is more important for me personally, 
when I shall die and appear before His judgment 
seat, whether now in the spring-time of my years or 
after a long life. However long be my life, there 
is not a day of it on which I may not die unex- 
pectedly. And to die out of the state of grace means 



724 Sanctifying Grace. 

for me to go down into the hell of fire. Therefore 
my Saviour's warning, 'T say to you, watch,'' means, 
as it is addressed to me, ''Live in the state of grace." 
But I can not live in the state of grace without grow- 
ing in it, and increasing the store of sanctifying 
grace already in me. I must do good works, and 
every good w^ork in the state of grace merits an in- 
crease of sanctifying grace, and consequently an 
increase of glory in heaven. Now everything I do 
from morning to night may be and ought to be a 
good work. Whatever I do, ought to be a right and 
proper thing for me to be doing at the time. If it 
is a right and proper thing to do, it is a good work. 
One way or another, I am to imitate my Saviour, of 
whom it is written that as He ''grew in age," or 
stature. He likewise grew in "grace before God." 
Thus, too, I am to grow in the likeness of my im- 
maculate Mother, "full of grace" (Luke i. 28; ii. 
40, 52; Johni. 14). 

Sanctifying grace is our comfort in the ills of life. 
Troubles come in abundance from without, but not 
the least of man's troubles is his own unsatisfactory 
self : as in navigating a rough sea in some crazy 
craft, the waves are heavy, but your chief annoy- 
ance is that they reveal so many weak points in your 
vessel. It might have been constructed to behave so 
very much better ! Few people, perhaps, are dis- 
satisfied with their own judgment: but w^ho is satis- 
fied with his own constancy, his own self-control? 
What room for self-satisfaction is left when one re- 
flects on the scrutinizing gaze of God? What a 
poor appearance I must present to the eyes of my 
Maker ! Our good resolutions fail, our fits of piety 
pass ofif, faults that we thought overcome re-assert 
themselves, cur weaknesses are apparent on every 
possible occasion : we say to ourselves in the bitter- 



Sanctifying Grace. 72s 

iiess of disappointment, "Oh, that I were better !" 
''Can I ever be good ?" We cry with St. Bernard : 
''There is nothing seated in me, but all is in commo- 
tion, all things sway to and fro, my whole being 
tosses like the sea/' Yes, there is one thing that 
with a little fidelity and care will remain constant 
within me; and that is the best thing of all, the 
sanctifying grace of God. Sanctifying grace is 
never absent from us except when we are in mortal 
sin. More than that, whenever it is in the soul at 
all, it is there in all the fulness that it has ever at- 
tained to in that soul. Grace does not lend itself 
to figures, but we may use figures to aid our under- 
standing of this matter. As a man, once grown to 
six feet, will never again be reduced to a stature of 
four feet or five, but wherever he is, there is six 
feet of him ; so the sanctifying grace that in a par- 
ticular soul could once be represented by sixty, can 
never be represented in that soul by a lower num- 
ber, say forty-eight. It may drop down to zero, and 
be all lost, but if it comes back again, it comes back 
in a quantity at least up to sixty. Sanctifying grace 
is not diminished by venial sin. Venial sins of great 
perversity and wilfulness endanger sanctifying 
grace, inasmuch as they lead to mortal sin; but 
though they endanger it they do not diminish it. 
While there is any of it at all in the soul, there is all 
that ever was there : and if, after being lost, it comes 
back again, there comes back all that ever was 
there. The frailty of the "earthen vessel'' in which 
it is contained does not make the "treasure" less 
(2 Cor. iv. 7). There are very strange people in 
the state of grace — here "a lazy, ragged, filthy, 
story-telling beggar-woman," as Cardinal Newman 
says {Apologia, p. 248), there a lot of idle boys, 
mischievous and giddy. If they were to die as they 



726 Sanctifying Grace. 

are now, they would be punished in purgatory for 
their idleness, but in the end they would go to heaven 
—they have a right to go there. Even now, with all 
their faults, they are God's most dear children, His 
right trusty and well-beloved sons. All this is 
meant, not to encourage m.e in my faults, but to save 
me from the discouragement that comes of my ef- 
forts at improvement seeming to lead to so little. It 
is not a little thing if, with all my imperfections on 
my head, I am still in the state of grace. 

However, we rnust behave as becomes that state, 
and not of set purpose behave unbecomingly even 
in little things : otherwise, going from little faults to 
greater, we shall finally lose sanctifying grace alto- 
gether. This, then, is the use, this indeed the neces- 
sity of acquiring virtues. Acquired virtues are good 
habits ; and good habits, like skill in games, are got 
by repeated good acts : by doing a thing well over 
and over again we get into the w^ay of doing the 
thing readily whenever we see occasion for it. Such 
good habits are the virtues of obedience, of self- 
control, of temperance, of meekness, of modesty, of 
diligence. These virtues themselves are not sancti- 
fying grace. Sanctifying grace may exist without 
them, as in the baptized infant or in the newly ab- 
solved sinner. The infant has no acquired habits 
whatever: the inveterate sinner, who has just made 
a good confession, has no acquired good habits, but 
many bad ones: yet both have sanctifying grace. 
But that grace is not safe unless the possessor of it 
is diligent in doing good, resisting evil, and so ac- 
quiring habits of virtue. These acquired habits of 
virtue are the ramparts and defenses of sanctifying 
grace. A man is a fool who, having a great treas- 
ure in his possession, leaves it unsecured.* 
*From Ye Are Christ's, by the Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J. 



CHAPTER LXVI. 

Devotion to tbe paaeion ot Out XorD anO Saviour 
5e0U0 Cbriet 

'T^ EVOTiON to the Passion of Our Lord, like devo- 
f^^ tion to the Blessed Sacrament and to the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus, is strongly approved and 
urged upon the faithful by our holy Mother, the 
Church. It is a solid devotion, deeply founded in 
dogma, and reaches back to the earliest ages.* 

True devotion, in its perfect meaning, includes 
love for and imitation of the person to whom we 
are devoted, and in reference to our dear Lord we 
may affirm that the Passion and the Blessed Sacra- 
ment are best suited to inflame our hearts with love, 
and to arouse in us an earnest desire of imitation. 

They are the strongest proofs of the love of the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus for man, and therefore the 
best means to inflame the heart of man with love of 
Him. St. Augustine exclaims : ''Let Him be nailed 
with the nails of love in the midst of thy heart, who, 
for love of thee, was nailed by the rough iron nails 
to the hard wood of the cross." Considering imita- 
tion as part of our devotion, while our blessed 
Saviour gave us an example of all virtues at all 
times, He practiced them in a most sublime and 
heroic manner during His Passion. In the most 
trying circumstances, Christ our Lord gave us an 
example of those virtues which we need most — pa- 
tience, meekness, mercy, charity, silence, perfect 
poverty of spirit, sublime abandonment, obedience to 
the heavenly Father's will — even unto death. St. 

*Read Old and New, by Fr. Nicholas Walsh, SJ. (De- 
votions). 



728 Devotion to the Passion of Our Lord. 

Bonaventure says : ''He who desires to go on ad- 
vancing from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, 
should constantly meditate on the Passion of Jesus 
Christ." 

He who frequently reflects on the sufferings of 
Our Saviour can not live without loving Him, with- 
out imitating Him, without laboring and suffering 
in union with Him. Father Dignam, S.J., speaking 
to Religious, says : ''We should go through the dif- 
ferent circumstances of the Passion, and compare 
them with the occasions of suffering we meet with in 
religious life. They are drops of the chalice which 
Our Lord asks us to drink with Him. 'Can you not 
drink of the chalice I have drunk for the love of 
God ?' His bonds are our vows ; the sufferings of 
the scourging, our physical pain. He is treated by 
Herod, who held authority from God, as a fool. 
He was rejected for Barabbas ; are we not sometimes 
rejected for another — set aside for some one who 
is certainly more worthy than ourselves ? Is not the 
gall they gave Him like the bitterness we receive 
when we are longing for consolation? As we look 
at the dead body of Our Lord hanging on the cross, 
we see that His Passion was one long act of sub- 
mission: 'Obedient unto death.' Every wound 
preaches the same lesson. 

"The vows! How dear they should be: (i) Be- 
cause they so perfectly fulfill the object of Christ's 
sufferings for me, in so weak a creature; (2) be- 
cause they make so poor a life so great a glory to 
God; (3) because they impart so great a merit to 
such little acts, and promise so great a reward.'' 

St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says : "The 
charity of Christ presseth us" (2 Cor. v. 14). One 
who meditates frequently on the sufferings of Christ 
will feel himself so constrained by the Saviour's in- 



Devotion to the Passion of Our Lord. 729 

effable love for him, that he will not possibly be able 
to refrain from loving a God so full of love, who 
has suffered so much to wan our love. Hence, the 
Apostle of the Gentiles said that he desired to know 
nothing but Jesus, and Jesus crucified. ''I judged 
not myself to know anything among you but Jesus 
Christ, and Him crucified" (i Cor. ii. 2). All the 
saints have learned the art of loving God from the 
study of the crucifix. St. Francis of Assisi found 
no subject on which he exhorted his brethren with 
greater eagerness than the constant remembrance 
of the Passion of Jesus. 

''As for myself,'' writes St. Alphonsus, ''I can 
never be satiated with meditating on the Passion of 
our divine Redeemer. In this subject I find every- 
thing. Meditation on the Passion teaches the perfect 
observance of the vows and Rules, the love of con- 
tempt and of the trials that are inseparable from the 
religious life. He will never effect much who does 
not carry Jesus Christ crucified in his heart. He 
who keeps his Redeemer in view, can not but love 
Him truly." Jesus Christ crucified should be our 
love, our life, our treasure, our all. With St. Paul, 
we ought to be able to say : ''With Christ I am nailed 
to the cross ; and I live, now not I, but Christ liveth 
in me. ... I live in the faith of the Son of God, 
who loved me and delivered Himself for me" (Gal. 
ii. 19, 20). 

The sufferings of Christ have been a subject of 
earnest and fruitful meditation with all devout souls 
in all ages. The tradition is not difficult to receive 
that Mary, the Blessed Virgin, John, the beloved dis- 
ciple, the penitent Magdalen and the other pious 
women who stood in the shadow of the cross on Cal- 
vary, together with the holy apostles, after the As- 
cension of Our Lord frequently visited the scene of 



730 Devotion to the Passion of Our Lord. 

His sufferings and shed many tears along the Via 
Dolorosa. The Apostle St. Paul, writing to the 
Hebrews, says : ''J^^us also, that He might sanctify 
the people by His own blood, suffered without the 
gate. Let us go forth, therefore, to Him without the 
camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. xiii. 12, 13). 

Doubtless the Passion was earnestly preached to 
the people in the time of the apostles ; else St. Paul 
would not have written : "O senseless Galatians, who 
hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the 
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set 
forth crucified among you?" (Gal. iii. i). Look- 
ing to Jesus crucified for love of them, the early 
Christian martyrs, as well as those of a later day, 
were enabled to endure the most terrible sufferings 
with courage and heartfelt joy. In all ages thou- 
sands of the faithful have made pilgrimages to the 
Holy Land. Why? In order to visit the scenes 
of Our Lord's sufferings. They wished to impress 
deeply on their minds w^hat the Blessed Saviour had 
suffered for mankind and for their own salvation in 
particular. Doubtless they returned to their homes 
better men and better women, their hearts aglow 
with the love of Jesus crucified. ''All the saints," 
says St. Alphonsus, ''cherished a tender devotion 
toward Jestis Christ in His Passion ; this is the 
means by which they sanctified themselves." To all 
those who have followed the Redeemer on the way of 
the cross and are now glorified with Him, "to live 
was Christ and to die was gain" and therefore they 
longed for and eagerly embraced suffering. 

St. Bernard was wont to exclaim : "My heart to 
the cross and the cross in my heart." Father Hubert, 
the author of Ecce Homo, writes: "The cross and 
sufferings of Our Lord were not only a source of 
comfort to the saints, but a book from which they 



Devotion to the Passion of Our Lord. 731 

learned heavenly wisdom, as St. Bonaventure ac- 
knowledged. They had the crucified Saviour ever 
before their eyes. This is why we see the saints so 
often represented with the crucifix before them, like 
St. Aloysius, St. Teresa, St. Bernard (who bears the 
instruments of the Passion in his hands), and many 
others. On their death-bed they read and com- 
forted themselves out of this book. 'Give me my 
book,' said St. Benitius on his death-bed (he meant 
his crucifix). This is my book, my best-beloved 
book ; it will help me to make my last will. I have 
often looked into this book, and with it I will end 
my hfe.' " 

A pious servant of God made use of the fol- 
lowing good practice, in order to overcome tempta- 
tion, to encourage himself in patience, and to stir up 
in himself love to Christ. He often placed himself 
opposite the crucifix and spoke thus to himself : 

"See thy God on the cross — darest thou commit 
sin? See thy God on the cross, and do not com- 
plain in thy sufferings. See thy God on the cross, 
and consider how worthy of all love He is.'' St. 
Augustine did something of the same kind. ''As 
often as I am tempted," he says, 'T take refuge in 
the wounds of Christ, and make my sanctuary in 
the compassionate Heart of my Lord." 

"The life of the servants of God," writes St. Paul 
of the Cross, "is a continual death. For you are 
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. I wish 
you to die this mystical death. Suffering is brief; 
joy will be eternal." We read in the Gospel of St. 
Luke (ix. 23) : "If any man will come after Me, let 
him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and 
follow Me." These words were spoken by our 
divine Redeemer to all Christians, but they were 
meant undoubtedly for Religious in particular. 



^JZ'^' Devotion to the Passion of Our Lord. 

By the taking of their vows, they are professedly 
cross-bearers. 

The three nails of the crucifix should remind them 
of the three vows by which they themselves are cru- 
cified with Jesus. As Father Edmund Hill, C.P., re- 
marks in his admirable little book A Few Simple and 
Business-Like Ways of Devotion to the Passion: 'Tf 
we would 'take up our cross' for the day, we must 
make a good, strong, generous resolution every 
morning to mortify our natural inclinations : (a) By 
performing our duties faithfully; (b) by bearing 
our trials patiently; (^) by fighting our temptations 
perseveringly. This will be taking up our cross in 
real earnest." 

'The Apostle," says Father Baxter, ''exhorts us 
to carry our cross daily in these words : 'Always 
bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus' 
(2 Cor. iv. 10). No day, therefore, ought to pass in 
which the disciple of Christ does not make some 
progress in mortification. Hence the learned St. 
Augustine remarks, 'The whole life of a Christian, if 
he lives according to the Gospel, is a cross and a 
martyrdom.' Embrace, therefore, your cross will- 
ingly, and whatever is disagreeable to flesh and 
blood; for the cross will be a passport to an ever- 
lasting life of happiness." 



CHAPTER LXVII. 

©baervationg Concerning tbe /iReDitattona on tbe 
lpa06ion ot Cbriet 

** ^T^OTHiNG effects in the soul so complete a sancti- 

«-*^6 fication as meditation on the sufferings of 
Christ/' says St. Bonaventure. *'Keep a continual 
remembrance of the sufferings of your heavenly 
Spouse/' are the words of St. Paul of the Cross. ''En- 
deavor to fathom the love with which He endured 
them. The shortest way is to lose yourself completely 
in that abyss of sufferings. Truly does the prophet 
call the Passion of Jesus a sea of love ancl of sorrow. 
Ah ! therein lies the great secret which is revealed 
only to humble souls. In this vast sea the soul 
fishes for the pearls of virtues, and makes her own 
the suff'erings of her Beloved. I have a lively con- 
fidence that your Spouse will teach you this divine 
method of fishing; He will teach it to you if you 
keep yourself in interior solitude, your mind free 
from all distraction, detached from all earthly 
affection, from every created thing, in pure faith and 
holy love.'' 

In your meditations on the Passion, consider Our 
Lord's sufferings from different points of view by 
asking yourself the following simple questions : 

Who suffers ? 

What does He suffer? 

From whom does He suffer ? 

Why or for whom does He suffer ? 

How or with what affection does He suffer ? 

While meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, 
many affections may be entertained and expressed. 



734 Observations Concerning the Meditations. 

But, as Father Baxter, S J., observes :* Spiritual 
writers remark seven affections which pecuharly cor- 
respond to the subject. 

I. Admire in each mystery the dignity of the Per- 
son who suffers, and the intensity of the torments to 
which He freely subjects Himself. ''Who is this 
who Cometh from Edom, w4th dyed garments from 
'Bosra? Why, then, is Thy apparel red, and Thy 
garment like theirs that tread in the wine-press?" 
(Is. Ixiii. I, 2.) 

n. Condole with Him, as children do with their 
parents when in distress or affliction, or as brothers 
do with each other. ''My son Absalom, Absalom, 
my son, would to God that I might die for thee, 
A-bsalom, my son, my son Absalom" (2 Kings 
xviii. 33). 

HI. Be confounded at your ingratitude, and 
grieve for your sins which were the causes of His 
sufferings. If these sins drew^ blood from Christ, 
they should surely draw tears from you. 'T know my 
iniquity, and my sin is always before me" (Ps. 1. 5). 

IV. Love Him who has shown such love for you, 
and suffered so much for your sake. "Lord," says 
St. Ambrose, 'T owe more to your injuries for my 
redemption than to your works for my creation." 

V. Hope for, and promise yourself, all the good 
that your heart can wish ; for ''He that spared not 
even His own Son, has He not also, with Him, given 
us all things?" (Rom. viii. 32). 

VI. Thank Him for having suffered so much for 
you ; "for the best means of preserving a benefit is 
a faithful recollection of it, and a constant profes- 
sion of gratitude." 

VII. Imitate your Lord and Leader in suffering 

"^Meditations for Every Day in the Year, by Rev. Roger 
Baxter, SJ. 



Observations Concerning the Meditations. 735 

reproaches and injuries. He has suffered so much 
for you ; and what return have you made, what re- 
turn will you make? ''Christ suffered for us, leav- 
ing you an example, that you should follow His 
steps" (i Pet. ii. 21). 

i^eflectioixs on ti)e ^passion of <©ur Hortr*^ 

CHRIST INVITES ALL TO CONTEMPLATE HIS PASSION. 

I. Christ with good reason complains that after 
having suffered so much for men. He still finds them 
ungrateful and forgetful. ''I looked for one," He 
might truly have said during His Passion, ''who 
would grieve together with Me, but there was none ; 
and for one who would comfort Me, and I found 
none" (Ps. Ixviii. 21). ''The just perisheth, and no 
man layeth it to heart" (Is. Ivii. i). Meditate on 
this pitiful state of your Jesus ; tell Him that you 
will not leave Him alone ; that you wall sympathize 
with Him; and that the just one shall not perish 
without your notice and condolence. 

n. We can do nothing more pleasing to Our Re- 
deemer than to meditate frequently on His Passion. 
He invites all mankind to this holy exercise by the 
mouth of His prophet : "O all ye that pass by the 
way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to 
My sorrow" (Lam. i. 12). He calls the attention of 
all mankind to His sufferings by the same prophet : 
"Remember My poverty," he says, ''the wormwood 
and the gall" (Lam. iii. 19). Reflect, and apply the 
case to yourself : if you had suffered any serious loss 
in your property or person in the defense of your 
friend, would you not justly expect that he should 
ever be grateful for your friendly kindness? How 
much more has Christ suffered for you ! 

*Baxter (ibid.). 



*JZ^ Observations Concerning the Meditations. 

III. Present yourself before Christ as an attentive 
spectator of His sufferings, and promise to meditate 
on them with feelings of gratitude. Say with the 
prophet, ''I will be mindful and remember ; and my 
soul shall languish within me. These things I shall 
think over in my heart, therefore will I hope" (Lam. 
iii. 20). And if you contemplate His Passion, you 
will have good reason to hope; for He suffered in 
order that He might be able to present Himself as 
our advocate before His Father, and allege His own 
sufferings in our behalf. He pardoned the thief on 
the cross and gave him admission into paradise. 

WHO SUFFERS ? 

I. He who suffers is the immaculate Lamb of 
God, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in 
His mouth'' (i Pet. ii. 22), He was the Holy of 
holies, possessed of the divine Spirit beyond measure, 
the perfect form and image of His Father. His cru- 
ciners confessed Him to be the Son of God, and their 
judge had already pronounced Him innocent. 

II. He who suffered had already devoted His 
whole life to the good of others ; He "had gone about 
doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by 
the devil" (Acts x. 38). He therefore not only suf- 
fered without deserving these sufferings, but, on the 
contrary. He merited every kind of honor, respect, 
and veneration. 

III. He who suft'ered was the great Lover of man- 
kind. He had made Himself our Redeemer, Pastor, 
Physician, and Brother, If the son ought to feel sen- 
sibly the sufferings of his father, and the spouse to 
condole with her spouse in his afflictions, how much 
more reason have you to compassionate Jesus Christ 
in the sufferings which He has undergone for your 



Observations Concerning the Meditations. T^l 

sake ! There is no character, however afifectionate, 
and no title, however dear, that this man-God has 
not assumed in your regard. Grieve for Him, then ; 
and if you can not carry, with the Apostle, the marks 
of His sufferings on your own body, bear them in 
your heart. Resolve to suffer something, at least, 
for His sake. 

WHAT DOES HE SUFFER? 

I. The sufferings of Christ were various and nu- 
merous. He suffers in His external goods ; for He 
is stripped of everything that He had, even of His 
very clothes, and He is suspended naked on the 
cross, in the presence of all the Jews. He suffers in 
His honor; for every species of reproach is thrown 
upon Him. His fame suffers ; for He is variously tra- 
duced and calumniated : He is represented as a Sam- 
aritan, a man possessed by the devil, a glutton, a 
lover of wine, a blasphemer, and a seducer. His 
knowledge is insulted ; for He is considered as a man 
without learning and a madman. His miracles are 
esteemed as so many impostures. And to crown all, 
He is totally abandoned by His friends. 

n. How much He suffered in His body ! His eyes 
were defiled with spittle, and filled with the blood 
which flowed from His sacred head, and tormented 
with the scornful gestures which they were obliged 
to behold. His ears were wounded with repeated 
blasphemies against God, and most mi just accusa- 
tions brought against Himself. His taste was tor- 
mented with the most violent thirst, and then with 
vinegar and gall. Lastly, His sense of feeling was 
tortured in every part of His sacred body, by 
thorns, stripes and nails. So that it might be said 
of Him with truth, 'Trom the sole of the foot unto 



72i^ Observations Concerning the Meditations. 

the top of the head, there is no soundness therein'* 
(Is. i. 6). 

TIL Christ suffered, also, most severely in His 
mind. His agony in the garden and His dereliction 
on the cross were perhaps the severest of all His 
pains : add to those His foreknowledge of the ingrat- 
itude of mankind, and their abuse of His Redemp- 
tion. Be ashamed at your cowardice in suffering 
and your impatience under the pressure of crosses. 
Form a resolution of suft'ering something for Him 
who has suffered so much for you. 

FROM WHOM DOES HE SUFFER? 

I. He suffers from every kind and character of 
men; from the highest to the lowest, from the 
sacred and the profane. He is dragged about the 
streets by the dregs of the people ; He is forsaken by 
His friends, He is accused by the priests, laughed 
at by the soldiery, condemned by the council of the 
high priest, ignominiously treated in the court of the 
governor, and sentenced to death at the tribunal of 
the president. Learn, hence, to contemn the opin- 
ions and judgments of the world which was so un- 
just to your Saviour. 

H. He suffered from those whom He came to 
save, on whom He had already bestowed most singu- 
lar favors during His private and public life ; so that 
He might truly say, ''they have hated Me without 
cause" (John xv. 25). And w^hat is still more, He 
suffered Himself to be betrayed by His own dis- 
ciple, to give us an example of patience in the fail- 
ure and abandonment of friends. ''The man of My 
peace, in whom I trusted, who ate My bread, hath 
greatly supplanted Me" (Ps. xl. 10). 

HI. He was left exposed to the machinations of 



Observations Concerning the Meditations. 739 

hell, according to the expression of St. Luke : 'This 
is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke xxii. 
53) . He was surrendered to the power of Satan, not 
as holy Job was, with this restriction, ''but yet save 
his life'' (Job ii. 6), but absolutely and even to death. 
Compassionate your Lord, thus forsaken by His 
friends and left to the mercy of His most cruel ene- 
mies ; and if at any time it should be your fortune to 
experience the insolence of men, remember "the dis- 
ciple is not above the Master'' (Matt. x. 24). 

WHY OR FOR WHOM DOES HE SUFFER? 

L Christ did not suffer for Himself, for He was 
incapable of doing anything that deserved punish- 
ment ; but He suffered in order to reconcile mankind 
to His Eternal Father, and to open to them the gates 
of heaven. He suffered in every manner, because in 
every manner men had offended their God, and be- 
cause His object was to apply a remedy to every 
vice. To correct our covetousness, He chose to die 
naked; to reform our pride. He willingly suffered 
reproaches ; He opposed His torments to our lux- 
ury, and He drank vinegar and gall to atone for our 
intemperance. 

H. He suffered in a most peculiar manner for 
His enemies, that is, for all sinners ; for "God com- 
mendeth His charity toward us, because, v/hen as 
yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ 
died for us ; and when we were enemies, we were re- 
conciled to God by the death of His Son" (Rom. v. 
8, 10). And what is more, when He was in the act 
of expiring on the cross, He prayed for His execu- 
tioners, that He might teach us "to overcome evil 
by good" (Rom. xii. 21). 

in. Christ suffered for all mankind in general, 



740 Observations Concerning the Meditations. 

and for each of us in particular. Apply, then, His 
sufferings to yourself, and make them your own. 
Render yourself capable of saying with St. Paul, ''I 
live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me 
and delivered Himself for me'' (Gal. ii. 20). Re- 
flect what return you can make for so much love: 
''What shall I render to the Lord for all the things 
that He hath rendered to me ? I will take the chalice 
of salvation" (Ps. cxv. 3). Take, therefore, the chal- 
ice of His Passion, and drink it at least spiritu- 
ally by contemplation ; this is the return which your 
Saviour expects, and of which He will most cor- 
dially accept. 

HOW OR WITH WHAT AFFECTION DOES HE SUFFER? 

I. His sufferings were prompted by a most sin- 
cere love for us ; He earnestly wished beforehand for 
the hour in which His Passion would commence. "I 
have a baptism," He says, ''wherewith I am to be 
baptized ; and how am I straitened until it be ac- 
complished!" (Luke xii. 50.) 

H. His sufferings were endured with the most 
profuse liberality. One single pain, one drop of 
blood, would have atoned for the crimes of a thou- 
sand worlds, in consequence of the nature of the suf- 
ferer; but Christ shed all His blood. "With Him" 
there is ''plentiful redemption" (Ps. cxxix. 7). 

HL He suffered with the greatest meekness ; for, 
"w^hen He was reviled. He did not revile ; when He 
suffered, He threatened not ; but He delivered Him- 
self to him who judged Him unjustly" (i Pet. ii. 
23). And the prophet had foretold that "He shall 
be led as a sheep to the slaughter" (Is. liii. 7). 

IV. He suffered with an insatiable zeal for the 
salvation of mankind ; hence He exclaimed on the 
cross, "I thirst" (John xix. 28). 



Observations Concerning the Meditations. 741 

V. In His sufferings He was perfectly humble ; 
hence He might have said of Himself, ''I am a worm 
and no man ; the reproach of men, and the outcast of 
the people'' (Ps. xxi. 7). 

VI. He exercised the virtue of poverty during the 
whole of His Passion, and He ultimately died naked 
on the cross. 

VII. His patience and perseverance were uncon- 
querable, and never yielded to the most grievous tor- 
tures. 

VIII. He practiced the virtue of obedience in its 
highest degree during His sufferings. He was "obe- 
dient unto death, even to the death of the cross" 
(Phil. ii. 8) . He was obedient not only to His Eter- 
nal Father, but even to His cruel executioners. "I 
have given My body to the strikers," He says of 
Himself by His prophet, ''and My cheeks to them 
that plucked them ; I have not turned away My face 
from them that rebuked Me and spit upon Me" (Is. 
1. 6). Examine minutely this perfect model of pa- 
tience and ^virtue, and ''go and do thou likewise." 



CHAPTER LXVIII. 

Devotion to tbe Messed VivQin.—iJitsat^'e %ovc 
tor tRcUgiowB. 

IF it be true, and the holy Father St. Damian de- 
clares that it can not be doubted, that Mary 
loves all mankind, that after God her love for all, 
without exception, is the strongest, with what ten- 
derness must she regard the Religious who has aban- 
doned everything for love of Jesus and consecrated 
herself entirely to her divine Son ! She well knows 
that such a life is closely conformed to her own and 
to that of Jesus. She beholds the Religious so often 
occupied with meditating on her life and virtues, 
proclaiming her praise, honoring her by novenas, 
visiting her oratories and shrines, reciting her 
Rosary, fasting on the vigils of her feasts, and 
urging others to practice devotion to her. She sees 
the Religious at her feet, calling upon her for help, 
and begging for the graces she loves to obtain for 
her children, such as perseverance in the service of 
God, strength in temptation, love of Jesus, and de- 
tachment from the things of earth. How, then, can 
it be doubted that she will use her merciful influence 
in behalf of the Religious ? And this dear Mother is 
so grateful. *T love them that love me" (Prov. viii. 
17), the Holy Ghost says by the lips of Mary. Yes, 
she is so grateful that, according to St. Andrew of 
Crete, she returns the least service with the richest 
gifts. She promises to free from sin all who honor 
her and influence others to honor her : ''They that 
work by me shall not sin,'' and to them she assures 
the kingdom ot heaven : ''They that explain me 



Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 743 

shall have life everlasting'' (Ecclus. xxiv. 30, 31). A 
Religious owes special gratitude to Almighty God 
for introducing her into the convent life, where, in 
the community exercises and by the example of her 
fellow sisters, she is so frequently reminded to have 
recourse to Mary, who is the joy and the hope of all 
who invoke her. 

It is Mary herself who calls innumerable souls to 
religion. St. Philip Benitius, a handsome and promis- 
ing youth, entered the chapel of the Servites of 
Mary, outside the city of Florence, to attend the ser- 
vices, one Thursday in Easter week. During the 
reading of the epistle, he heard the words formerly 
addressed to the deacon Philip: ''Go near, and join 
thyself to this chariot" (Acts viii. 29). The words 
made a deep impression on him, for he, too, was 
called Philip. He felt that they were addressed di- 
rectly to him by the Holy Ghost. They pursued him 
the rest of the day, and that night he dreamed that 
he was in a wild, pathless region full of rocks, bleak 
hills and deep, dangerous ravines. Briars and thorns, 
and all manner of creeping things covered the muddy 
ground. Frightened at the wildness and the loneH- 
ness of the place, he cried out in terror. Then he 
saw the Blessed Virgin, surrounded by angels hov- 
ering in the air. In her hand was the habit of a 
Servite, and she uttered the words : ''Philip, go near, 
and join thyself to this chariot." He awoke, and, 
recognizing the meaning of the words, no longer 
doubted that he should join the Order of the Servites 
of Mary. Early next morning he presented himself 
before the Superior of the convent, requested admit- 
tance, and was clothed as a lay-Brother. Thus did 
Mary introduce him among her chosen servants. St. 
Teresa was only twelve years old when she lost her 
mother. Full of sorrow, the child threw herself on 



744 Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 

her knees before a picture of the Blessed Virgin, and 
begged her to be to her a mother in the place of her 
whom she had lost. Mary heard her petition. ''I 
have never called upon this most glorious Mother/' 
St. Teresa tells us, ''without immediately experienc- 
ing her gracious protection.'' 

Great, indeed, should be the confidence of the Re- 
ligious in the Blessed Mother of God and Queen of 
heaven, since through her mediation she has doubt- 
less received the grace to enter the religious state. 
"He that shall find me shall find life, and shall have 
salvation from the Lord" (Prov. viii. 35), are the 
words that holy Church sings on the high festivals 
of the Mother of God. Whoever finds me, says Mary, 
by sincere devotion to me, will find the life of grace 
on earth and salvation in heaven. St. Anthony ex- 
claims : ''All who bravely defend this powerful 
heavenly Queen will surely be saved." St. Anselm 
goes so far as to address the divine Mother in the 
following terms: "O Blessed Virgin, as it is im- 
possible for one who does not honor thee, for one 
whom thou dost not help, to be saved, so is it im- 
possible for him who commends himself to thee, for 
him whom thou dost favor to be lost." Even in this 
world, says St. Bonaventure, will the foster-children 
of Mary be acknowledged by the blessed in heaven 
as their brethren, and every one that wears the 
badge of Mary's service is inscribed in the book of 
life. Devotion to Mary may be looked upon as a 
sign of the elect. St. Thomas says : "Mary signifies 
star of the sea. As the star guides the mariner into 
port, so the Christian will be guided to heaven bv 
Mary." 

Were a true servant of Mary damned, it would be 
because Mary either could not or would not help 
him. But no, says St. Bernard, it is impossible for 



Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 745 

a true servant of Mary ever to be lost, for she is 
lacking neither in power nor in willingness to assist 
him. Let us reflect a little on INIary's power with 
God to procure the salvation of her servants. The 
holy Church, to inspire us with confidence in this 
great mediatrix, directs us to address her by the title 
of ''powerful" — ''Virgo potens/' ''Powerful Virgin, 
pray for us" ! God Himself, the Almighty God, has 
adorned her with this title, for Mary has assured us : 
"He that is mighty hath done great things to me" 
(Luke i. 49). St. Theophilus, Bishop of Alex- 
andria, writes : ''The Son loves to hear His Mother 
petitioning Him for favors, and He grants all that 
she asks, in this way to repay her for v/hat she did 
for Him when she became His Mother." Cosmas of 
Jerusalem declares the intercession of Mary to be not 
only powerful, but all-powerful; and in the same 
spirit Richard of St. Lawrence writes : "Through the 
Almighty Son has the Mother become all-powerful." 
The divine Son is almighty by nature, the Mother 
is all-powerful by grace. She obtains from God all 
that she asks, and this for two reasons : first, be- 
cause she was the most faithful of God's servants 
and loved Him most; hence, as Suarez says, the 
Lord loves Mary above all the blessed together. St. 
Bridget one day heard Jesus saying to His Mother : 
"My Mother, ask for whatever it pleases thee, for 
thy requests will always be granted. Because thou 
didst deny Me nothing on earth, I can refuse thee 
nothing in heaven." The second reason that Mary 
is so powerful with Almighty God is because she is 
the Mother of Our Lord and Saviour. As her re- 
quests are those of a mother, they partake of the na- 
ture of commands ; therefore, it is impossible that 
she should not be heard. St. John Damascene cries 
out to her : "O my Mistress, thou art all-powerful 



746 Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 

to save sinners ! Thou dost need no recommendation 
with God, for thou art His Mother." When St. 
Chrysostom speaks of the request that Mary pre- 
sented to her divine Son at the wedding-feast of 
Cana, that He would supply more wine, he remarks : 
''Jesus replied to His Mother's suggestion, 'They 
have no wine,' in words that seemed to refuse the 
favor she was craving, 'Woman, what is it to Me and 
to thee? My hour is not yet come' (John ii. 4) ; 
nevertheless the divine Saviour failed not to do all 
that she desired." 

Have recourse to Mary, the all-powerful Mother 
of God ; run to her with confidence in all your 
troubles ; she is your own dear Mother! All praise 
and thanksgiving be to the ever-blessed Trinity, who 
hath manifested to us Mary, ever virgin, clothed 
with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and on 
her head a mystic crown of twelve stars ! 



J^arj's IBesire to Jj^elp y^tx iHtf^iUixm. 

Great is Mary's desire to succor those who honor 
her, confide in her and invoke her. What avail 
to us would be Mary's power if she did not care for 
us? But we may feel sure that, as she is the most 
powerful among the saints, so also does she care 
most for our salvation. "Who after thy divine Son," 
cries out St. Germanus to Mary, "has done more for 
us than thou, O Mary? In all our woes who assists 
us as thou? Who is so helpful to poor sinners as 
thou ? O Mary, thy power is far greater than we can 
comprehend !" St. Andrew Avellino calls Mary the 
business-agent of heaven. But what kind of business 
does Mary carry on in heaven? Her business is to 



Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 747 

make constant intercession for us, obtaining for us 
the favors for which we beg her. She once said to 
St. Bridget : "I am called the Mother of mercy, and 
that I am by the mercy of God.'' Who indeed has 
given to us this tender protectress except the merci- 
ful God, who wills us to be saved ? The love of all 
mothers taken together can not equal that which 
Mary bears to a single one of her servants. She is 
compared to a beautiful olive-tree : ''As a fair olive- 
tree in the plains" (Ecclus. xxiv. 19). ''In the 
plains," that is, that all may behold her, may run 
to her. Oil, the symbol of mercy, flows from the 
fruit of the olive-tree ; Mary, "the fair olive-tree," 
diffuses her tenderness over all that have recourse 
to her. 

Let us run to her in all our necessities, for she is 
always ready to assist us, her hands are full always 
of graces and favors. Richard of St. Victor declares 
that Mary's heart is so sympathetic that, as soon as 
she learns the needs of her servants, she hastens to 
anticipate their requests, and helps them before they 
call upon her. She is gentle and loving toward all 
who come to her. Our sweet Mother herself 
attracts all to her, promising them all kinds of good 
things : "Come to me, all ye that desire me, for in 
me is all hope of life and virtue." Mary calls all, the 
just and the sinner. As the evil one is always going 
about seeking whom he may devour, so does this 
divine Mother go about seeking whom she can save. 
One cry brings her to our assistance. St. Bonaventure 
says that Mary so longs to help us and see us in 
heaven, that she feels hurt and offended not only by 
those who openly outrage and insult her, but also by 
those who do not come to her for assistance. The 
very thought of Mary, as he tells us, used to inun- 



748 Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 

date his soul with consolation. He saw in her mercy 
personified, her hands outstretched to free the slaves 
of sin. Mary's unceasing occupation in heaven is 
intercession for the needy. Let us invoke her in the 
words of St. Thomas of Villanova: ''Come, beloved 
Queen and Advocate, fulfil thy office ! Thou art the 
intercessor of the needy. Help us, poorest of sin- 
ners !" 

Our Lord once revealed to St. Catherine of Siena 
that He had charged Mary to take men, and espe- 
cially sinners, prisoners, and lead them to Him;. and 
Mary herself told St. Bridget that there was no sin- 
ner, no matter how abandoned, who, if he called on 
her, would not return to God and, by her media- 
tion, obtain forgiveness. Just as the magnet at- 
tracts iron, so does she draw the hardest hearts to 
herself and to God. "Who,'' exclaims Innocent HL, 
"has ever had recourse to Mary, and was not 
heard?" . 

Holy Church teaches us to call the blessed Mother 
of Jesus our hope : ''Salve, spes nostra T "Hail, our 
hope !" The godless Luther could not endure to 
hear Mary addressed as our hope. God alone, he 
said, should be our hope, and God curses him who 
puts his hope in a creature. That is true, but only 
when we place our hope in creatures without regard 
to God. We hope in Mary as in our intercessor 
with God. We have so much the more reason to do 
so, since God, according to St. Bernard, has in- 
trusted to Mary all the treasures of grace that He 
wills to impart to us. Let us, then, confidently in- 
voke the divine Mother, especially when the fear of 
hell torments us. Let us say to her with all our 
heart : "In thee, O heavenly Queen, I trust that I 
may not be confounded in eternity ! In thee do I 



Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. y/\g 

place my hope. Mother of Jesus, Mother of mercy, 
my own dear Mother, take care of me and save me 
from helli Make me a saint, that with thee in 
heaven I may praise and glorify my Lord, thy divine 
Son, forever/' 



CHAPTER LXIX. 



/Bbari^, ®ur /iRotber: 1bow to Ibonor Ibet* 

antr ^ioiis ^Practices. 

BROM what has been said, we feel assured that 
Mary can and does help her servants, espe- 
cially those who are constant in their devotedness to 
her, and who not only profess their love in their 
words, but also show it in their actions. ''Mary, the 
Mother of God, is my mother,'' St. Aloysius was 
wont to exclaim in an ecstasy of delight and grati- 
tude, and like a true servant of Mary he was ever 
anxious to avoid the least thing that could displease 
her or her divine Son, and always eager to honor and 
please her by acts of mortification and by the imita- 
tion of her virtues. Let us do likewise ; let us care- 
fully avoid whatever is displeasing to Almighty God. 
*'Detach thy will from sin," wrote St. Gregory VII. 
to the Countess Matilda, ''and you will find in Mary a 
mother more willing to protect and assist you than 
any earthly mother.'' If you love Mary truly, you 
will please her by a constant struggle against your 
passions, by striving to become ever more like to her 
in virtue, by mortifying yourself in little things, and 
by performing some devotion in her honor every 
day. Your constant endeavor should be to please 
your sweet Mother, and this you will do above all by 
doing the will of her divine Son, by your fidelity in 
the service of God, in laboring for your own sanc- 
tification, and the salvation of souls. 



Mary, Our Mother: Hozv to Honor Her. 751 

''True devotion/' as we read in The Little Book of 
Our Lady, '"comes from God and leads to God. The 
fundamental rule in regard to the homage which we 
offer to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints is, 
that it must ultimately be referred to God and our 
eternal salvation. Our devotion to the Blessed Vir- 
gin would be of no avail if it did not tend toward 
our' union with God, toward possessing Him eter- 
nally. 

'"True devotion extends itself to the saints without 
being separated from the eternal Source of all sanc- 
tity. 'For other foundation no man can lay, but that 
which is laid ; which is Christ Jesus' (i Cor. iii. 11). 
Let Him be the foundation of our devotion to His 
holy Mother. 

"We are not able to honor our blessed Lady ade- 
quately, since, through her, Jesus has come to us. 
Oh, how great, how sublime was Mary's vocation! 
God predestined her before all ages to be the Mother 
of the Saviour of the world. And having called her 
to fill this most glorious office He would not have 
her be a mere channel of grace, but an instrument 
cooperating, both by her excellent qualities and by 
her own free will, in the great work of our Redemp- 
tion. 

''For thousands of years the world had been ex- 
pecting the promised Messias. The fulness of time 
has now come. The eternal Father sends a heavenly 
messenger to Mary, to treat with her of the mystery 
of the Incarnation. She pronounces the word 
'Fiat!' 'Be it done!' And the heavens open; the 
earth possesses a Saviour; Mary has become the 
Mother of God, 

"Years pass by. The time has arrived when the 
great sacrifice is to be consummated. We find Mary 
at the foot of the cross. With the dying breath of 



752 Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 

Jesiis she receives the Church as an inheritance. 
Mary becomes our Mother. 

'These are the two great titles which give Mary a 
claim on our veneration and affection. She is like 
a fountain from which the waters of grace have 
spread themselves abundantly over the whole human 
race. As we have once received through her Jesus, 
the Source of all blessing and grace, so we also ob- 
tain through her powerful intercession the various 
effects and applications of this grace in all the cir- 
cumstances of life. Her maternal charity, w^hich 
shines forth in the mystery of the Incarnation, also 
causes her to take a share in the consequences of this 
universal principle of benediction. Thus Mary is, by 
her intercession, the Mother of all Christians, the 
Mother of all men. Her overflowing charity is an 
appropriate instrument for the operations of grace. 

''Who is better able than Mary to plead in our be- 
half ? She can confidently speak to the Heart of her 
divine Son, where her wishes, her sentiments, find an 
echo. She fears no refusal. The love of the Son 
makes Him lend a favorable ear to the request of 
His Mother. 

"Our blessed Lady is able and willing to help us, 
but in order to secure her powerful and kind assist- 
ance we must have a sincere devotion to her. This 
devotion must be practical : it ought not to consist 
in words only, but in actions. A person truly devout 
to Mary will enroll himself in her confraternities, 
especially in the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary ; 
he will celebrate her feasts, venerate her images, 
visit her temples, and endeavor to imitate her virtues. 
Certainly, he can not be said to have a true devotion 
toward the Mother of God who does not honor and 
invoke her by frequent and fervent prayers. Among 
the various exercises in her honor, comes in the first 



Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 753 

place the Mass of our blessed Lady. Pious histori- 
ans record many favors obtained by those who cele- 
brated or heard Mass in her honor. The Church 
also grants special privileges to the Mary-Mass on 
Saturdays. The Office of the Blessed Virgin, her 
Litanies, and the holy Rosary are singularly pleasing 
to her. Let us not imagine, however, that to secure 
the special protection of the Mother of God our 
prayers must needs be very long; much will depend 
upon circimistances ; but let us not forget the advice 
which blessed John Berchmans gave to his com- 
panions at his death : ' The least homage is suffi- 
cient, provided it be constant.' Hence, what we have 
once resolved to do in honor of our blessed Lady 
must never be put aside or neglected, but must be 
faithfully persevered in, daily, until death." 

Father Basso urges the devout clients of Mary 
to observe some very commendable practices, as fol- 
lows : 

On rising in the morning and on retiring at night 
say three Aves in honor of the purity of Mary with 
the aspiration : "'By thy holy virginity and Immac- 
ulate Conception, O most pure Virgin, purify my 
body and sanctify my soul!" Take refuge under 
her protecting mantle, that she may keep you from 
sin by day and by night. When the clock strikes, 
salute Mary with an Ave, Do the same on leaving 
or returning to your room, also when passing her 
pictures and shrines. At the beginning and end of 
every work or action, say an Ave^ for blessed is that 
work which is placed betw^een two Aves. When- 
ever we salute our dearest Queen with the "Angelic 
Salutation," so pleasing to her ears, she answers us 
with a grace from heaven. 

An Act of Consecration, the ''Salve Regina/' the 
*'Sub tunm prcesidhim/' the ''Memorare/' or some 



754 Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 

other favorite prayer is said daily by devout souls in 
honor of our blessed Mother, to obtain from her the 
grace of a holy life and a happy death. Another 
very acceptable devotion to Our Lady consists in of- 
fering three Paters and Aves to the Most Holy 
Trinity, in thanksgiving for the graces and privi- 
leges bestowed on her. The Saturday's fast on bread 
and water is a very laudable practice for those who 
have the courage to make such a sacrifice in honor of 
Mary. One can at least refrain from dainties. Do 
not neglect to perform some little devotion or morti- 
fication in honor of Mary on Saturday, for it is espe- 
cially consecrated to her by holy Church. Let no 
day pass without reading a little from some book 
that treats of Mary. Make with great fervor the 
novenas preparatory for the feasts of Mary. 

Father Bowden of the Oratory, in his Miniature 
Life of MarVj suggests the following practices in 
honor of Our Lady. They may be drawn by lot, or 
otherwise chosen, at the beginning of a month, 
especially the month of May. 

1. Take a short time from your recreation to spend 
in solitude conversing with Mary or in meditation on 
the mysteries of her life. 

2. Rise punctually in the morning, invoking her as 
''the morning star.'' 

3. Invoke her sixty-three times as "Virgin 
Mother" in honor of her sixty-three years. 

4. Visit in spirit one of her great sanctuaries. 

5. Mortify your will three times as an offering to 
Mary. 

6. Say three Glorias in honor of the saints and 
Doctors who have explained and defended her pre- 
rogatives. 

7. Gain indulgences for the soul in purgatory 
most devoted to the Blessed Virgin in life ; offer 
Mass and communion for this purpose. 



Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 755 

8. Ask Mary to be present with you during the 
day to drive away evil spirits. 

9. Perform some act of kindness wnth inconven- 
ience to yourself. 

10. Say three ''Hail Marys" in reparation for the 
blasphemies uttered against her. 

11. Give an alms in honor of her poverty. (If you 
have no money at your disposal, you can bestow the 
alms of kindness and sympathy.) 

12. Invoke the saints who were related to her — 
Sts. Joseph, Joachim, Anne, etc. 

13. Mortify 3^our sight, once or more, in honor of 
Mary's modesty. 

14. Burn a candle before her image or picture. 
1=;. Recall with devotion her words recorded in 

the Gospel, remembering how many of your sins are 
committed in speech. Bear your sufferings and 
sorrows silently and patiently. 

16. Say the litany for the conversion of a soul for 
Mary to offer to God. 

17. Shun idleness during the day in imitation of 
Mary at Nazareth. 

18. Say a "Hail Mary'' in honor of St. Gabriel^ 
who brought it to earth. 

19. Practice some little mortification at meals. 

20. Before going to sleep, place yourself with the 
infant Jesus in Mary's arms. 

21. Say seven Glorias with extended arms, in 
honor of her seven dolors. 

22. Make a spiritual communion in union with 
her disposition at the Annunciation. 

23. Say a Memorare to obtain Mary's help at the 
hour of death. 

24. Keep silence for a short time, and with Mary 
ponder on God's words in your heart. 

25. Say a ''Hail Mary" before going to bed, to 
prevent one mortal sin during the night. 



756 Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 

26. Visit her altar or image in atonement for the 
desecration of her sanctuaries. 

27. Say nine "Hail Marys" in union with the nine 
choirs of angels who are ever praising her. 

28. Say a Salve for the spread of devotion to her. 

29. Say fifteen Glorias, in honor of the last fifteen 
years of Mary's life, for the grace of perseverance. 

30. Kiss the ground, and say three ''Hail Marys" 
for the virtue of holy purity. 

31. Say a ''Hail Mary" in reparation for your 
neglect of Mary's service during this month. 

32. Distribute leaflets in praise of Mary, scapu- 
lars, medals, pictures, and beads, to promote devo- 
tion to the blessed Mother of God. 

Let us conclude this chapter with some special re- 
flections on the Rosary. In the Litany of Loretto the 
Church calls Mary "Queen of the most holy Rosary." 
In his beautiful and instructive sermon on the so- 
lemnity of the most holy Rosary, the Very Rev. D. T. 
McDermott says : "Why is the devotion called the 
most holy Rosary? The Church carefully weighs 
her words. She selects terms to convey her meaning 
as precisely as it is possible for language to express 
it. However language, in its poverty, may fail 
to express fully her meaning, the Church never 
indulges in exaggeration. Yet she calls the devotion 
of the Rosary — most holy. And most holy it shall 
be found to be in its origin, in its prayers, in its ob- 
ject, and in its effects." 

The word Rosary, as applied to this devotion, 
means Garden of Roses. It is, of course, figurative, 
and is intended to impress upon all that they will be 
able to gather flowers of piety and the fruits of 
every virtue from this devotion. 

In Sacred Scripture, our prayers and good works, 
because of an analogy they bear to them, are likened 



Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 757 

to material things. For example, our pious deeds are 
compared to light, in the following text : ''Let your 
light so shine before men, that they may see your 
good works, and glorify your Father who is in heav- 
en/' Good example is likened to the perfume of. 
precious ointments : ''Let us run in the odor of 
Thy ointments." Incense, in the words of holy 
David, has become a symbol of prayer : "Let my 
prayer ascend like incense in Thy sight." Men re- 
gard those who live soberly, justly, and piously as 
diffusing around them, by holiness of life, a sweet 
odor, just as fragrant flowers fill the surrounding at- 
mosphere with perfume. Hence, St. Paul says of 
those who lead holy lives : "They are the good odor 
of Christ unto God." And men say of them at 
death : "They died in the odor of sanctity." 

Christians were accustomed to decorate the altars 
of the Blessed Virgin, and to crown her statues with 
flowers, because these were emblematic of Mary's 
virtues. Hence, they hoped their prayers and devo- 
tions would be as acceptable to the holy Virgin as the 
sweet-smelling flowers they offered her were agree- 
able to men, and that their contemplation of these 
flowers would lead to the cultivation, in their own 
hearts, of those virtues which found in flowers such 
beautiful emblems. The Rosary is then fittingly 
called Mary's chaplet or wreath. 

The Rosary is a string of one hundred and fifty 
small beads, divided by fifteen larger ones into tens 
or decades, as they are commonly called. The string 
of beads ordinarily used has but five decades, and is 
but a third part of the Rosary. 

The arrangement of beads in this manner for the 
purpose of telling prayers, shows that they come to 
us, not only from the earliest Christian times, but 
that they were in use among the Jews. And it is not 



758 Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 

at all unlikely that the Blessed Virgin used something 
very similar to a string of beads in counting her 
prayers. So completely identified did beads become 
(in the course of time) with the counting of pray- 
ers, that the word '*bead" signified prayer. The ad- 
vantage of a string of beads for those who had a 
certain number of prayers to say was, that it allowed 
the mind and heart to be concentrated entirely on 
God, while the hand mechanically told the number, 
by passing a bead between the fingers. 

The one hundred and fifty beads represent the 
psalms of David. The devotion of such of the Jews 
and of the early Christians as could read and procure 
books, was the reading of the psalms. In order to 
furnish a substitute to those who could not read or 
procure books, vocal prayers were assigned to the 
number of one hundred and fifty — to be told by 
transferring a pebble (for every prayer) from one 
pocket to another, or by passing a bead through the 
fingers. 

The Rosary was recited in this form until the thir- 
teenth century. While, since that era it has devel- 
oped, and been made eminently practical, yet there is 
nothing in it to-day that did not spring from the 
germs it held then. 

It was then aptly called the people's psalter. The 
psalms of David are very suggestive of the Rosary 
as developed by St. Dominic. Some of the psalms 
are prophetic, descriptive of Our Saviour's coming, 
His office, and His reign. These correspond to the 
Joyful Mysteries. Other psalms are lamentations 
for sin, and prayers for deliverance from sufiferings 
and enemies. These correspond to the Sorrowful 
Mysteries. Then again there are those which are 
hymns of thanksgiving and praise, psalms of victory. 
These correspond to the Glorious Mysteries. The 



Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 759 

fifteen larger beads denote the mysteries of the Ro- 
sary. The arrangement of the Rosary in this form, 
with its meditation on the mysteries, is generally 
credited to St. Dominic. It matters not whether the 
Rosary of to-day was given to the saint by the Blessed 
Virgin herself, who is said to have appeared to him, 
or whether it was the result of an inspiration of 
grace. It has proved its title to heavenly origin by 
its fruits. "A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit ; 
neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit ; 
wherefore, by their fruits you shall know them/' 

The one great object of this devotion is to impress 
upon men the truths connected with the Redemption. 
When the number, the piety, the heroic virtues of 
those joined together in the devotion of the Rosary 
are considered, it must appear manifest that this 
form of prayer is simply irresistible with God. 

Just think of the number of holy souls joined in 
the confraternities of the Rosary, some still in the 
world, others in religious communities ! Many of 
these, like Aloysius, are angels in human flesh, who 
add bodily mortifications to innocence of life. Others 
are holy penitents, like Magdalen, Augustine, and 
Mary of Egypt, who honor God more by their pen- 
ance than ninety-nine just who need not penance. 
Think then of this countless number of devout men 
and women, who every day recite the Rosary piously 
for themselves and their brethren ! Think of the 
dying who, in momentary expectation of seeing God, 
devoutly ofifer the prayers of the Rosary as their 
last petitions to heaven in behalf of their brethren 
and themselves ! Think of those who were once 
members of these confraternities, who are now 
among the elect of God, and who constantly watch 
over the welfare of these fellow-members on earth. 
Think of the prayers, almsdeeds, mortifications of 



76o Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 

all those united in the Rosary, as presented to Jesus 
Christ through the hands of His Mother, and may it 
not be said they do a holy violence to heaven? ''The 
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the vio- 
lent bear it away/' How truly may it be said of 
those who, through this devotion, learn the virtues 
of Mary, and exhibit them in their daily lives : 
"They that explain me shall have everlasting life." 
The Rev. Mother Francis Raphael, O.S.D. 
(Augusta Theodosia Drane), writes, in The Spirit 
of the Dominican Order: "If we examine the special 
devotion of our saints, we shall find that the mys- 
teries of the Rosary were like an unseen thread run- 
ning through them all. Take the story of Magdalen 
Angelica, whose life was divided according to the 
three parts of the Rosary. At the commencement of 
her religious conversion she kept entirely to medita- 
tion on the Joyful Mysteries, in order to obtain a 
childlike gaiety and innocence of heart. Then when 
she had received the habit of religion, she took the 
Sorrowful Mysteries to meditate upon, and with 
them entered upon a long course of austerities and 
disciplines. And at last she passed on to the Glori- 
ous Mysteries ; and heaven rained down a very 
deluge of light and consolation into her soul, so 
long left disconsolate on the cross of her agonizing 
Spouse. This light was so divine and wonderful 
that it often became visible, encircling even her body 
in a bright luminous cloud. 'She acquired all her 
perfection,' says her biographer, 'through the medi- 
tations of the Rosary ;' and when one Rosary Sun- 
day, toward the close of her life, she knelt before 
Our Lady's altar, and prayed for innocence of heart, 
the divine Mother spoke to her and said : 'Be of good 
heart, my daughter ; for that which thou prayest for, 
thou already hast.'' 



Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 761 

We read in The Sentinel of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment: ''It was Our Lady herself who, at Lourdes, 
excited us to the devotion of the Rosary. She 
passed through her fingers a long Rosary of glitter- 
ing beads, smiling the while upon Bernardette, who 
was reciting her chaplet. 

''If we desire to gather the fruit, we must bend 
the branch. If we long to possess Jesus, we must 
draw Mary to us. The Rosary is the sweet and 
powerful means of finding Jesus through His 
Mother. 

"The month of the holy Rosary comes to recall to 
us how much the immaculate Virgin loves this devo- 
tion and excites us to practice it. Let us be faithful 
to the call, we, above all, who are servants of the 
Most Blessed Sacrament. What, in truth, does 
Jesus Eucharistic long for? What does He desire in 
abiding with us, except to live always in our 
thoughts, in our love? 'Do this in commemoration 
of Me,' did He say when giving us the Eucharist. 
Now, the Rosary responds to the same desire. As 
the Blessed Sacrament contains Jesus, with all the 
graces and virtues of His past states, so the Rosary 
calls up before the mind's eye all His mysteries. 
Therefore it is that, after the Eucharist and the 
liturgical offices, which successively recall to us all 
the feasts of Our Lord, the Rosary is the very best 
way of continually contemplating the life of Jesus 
Christ and of uniting ourselves to Him. 

"If we afford so much pleasure to father, to 
mother, to friends by a hearty greeting, how much 
more must our fervent 'Angelic Salutation' please 
Jesus and Mary! Oh, then, let us repeat, without 
tiring, this filial salutation, and Jesus and Mary will 
help us nozv and at the hour of our death T 

In The Rosary Magazine we read the following 



762 Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 

interesting communication : ''The Holy Father Pope 
Pius X. has offered a signal mark of his love for the 
Rosary in granting, July 31, 1906, to all those who 
piously carry the beads about with them, an indul- 
gence of one hundred years and as many quarantines. 
This indulgence may be gained daily, provided, of 
course, that one be in a state of grace. Rosarians will 
recall that this privilege was long enjoyed by mem- 
bers of the Rosary Confraternity, Pope Innocent 
VIII. in a bull dated February 26, 1491, having con- 
ferred it in the blessed hope that such a plenitude of 
favor might spread devotion to the Rosary over land 
and sea. In 1899 Pope Leo XIII. published a cata- 
logue of indulgences in which the above did not ap- 
pear. As Rosarians we rejoice that this favor is again 
ours, and we fervently pray that a still wider propa- 
gation of the Rosary devotion may result, and that 
the desire of the Venerable Pontiff to bring all 
things to Christ may be speedily realized. 

'Tn view of the many inquiries concerning the 
Crozier indulgence, which is five hundred days for 
each Hail Mary, it may be well to state here that a 
greater indulgence, that of five years and five quar- 
antines, can be gained by Rosarians each time the 
holy name of Jesus is reverently pronounced in the 
recitation of the Dominican Rosary.'' 

5rj)e pCass antr tje S^osara?. 

One day, St. Dominic, the great apostle of the 
Rosary, was preaching before the Duke of Bretagne, 
his court, and an immense crowd of people. He af- 
firmed that, as he had learned from heaven, no hom- 
age, with the exception of the holy sacrifice of the 
Mass and the Divine Office, was so pleasing to Jesus 
and Mary as the fervent recitation of the Rosary. 



Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 763 

This assertion seemed exaggerated to many of his 
hearers, but they were soon led to a change of senti- 
ment. 

St. Dominic celebrated Mass after his sermon, and 
now behold a miracle under the eyes of all. At the 
moment of Consecration, when the saint elevated the 
sacred Host, they saw in it the Mother of God, hold- 
ing in her arms and pressing to her breast the Infant 
Jesus. The people, transported with joy, gazed 
upon the ravishing spectacle. But behold, at the ele- 
vation of the chalice, another vision replaced the 
first. It was Christ on the cross, covered with blood 
and wounds, whom Dominic held in his hands. 
Then, near the moment of Communion, a third 
prodigy roused the wonder of the faithful to the 
highest pitch. A dazzling light surrounded the al- 
tar, and in its splendor appeared Our Lord in all the 
glory of His Resurrection, as on the day He blessed 
His disciples, and ascended to heaven. 

The holy sacrifice over, St. Dominic explained the 
meaning of the apparitions. The Infant Jesus in 
His Mother's arms represented the Joyous Mys- 
teries ; Jesus crucified, the Sorrowful ; and Jesus 
risen, the Glorious. God wished to show us that all 
are contained and reproduced in the holy sacrifice of 
the Mass just as they are honored by the Rosary. 
He wished, above all, to make us understand how 
much He desires these mysteries to be cherished by 
Christians. By that miracle. He openly confirmed 
the preaching they had just heard. 

The Rosary is the abridgment, the resume of the 
whole life of Christ, as is also the holy sacrifice, of 
the Mass. The Mass gives Him to us in reality, and 
the Rosary makes us contemplate Him. The Mass 
rises, then, above the Rosary, as sacramental com- 
munion rises above spiritual communion. But as 



764 Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her. 

Spiritual communion bears excellent fruits in a fer- 
vent soul, something like those of the Sacrament it- 
self, so by the pious recitation of the Rosary we 
unite very intimately with Jesus in His mysteries, to 
offer to God all their merits, and to receive for our- 
selves their most abundant fruits. 

The Rosary, with its Joyous, Sorrowful, and 
Glorious Mysteries, is of so great importance in the. 
eyes of holy Church that she has consecrated the 
month of October to the practice of the devotion. 

To salute Mary and, with her, the Most Holy 
Trinity — to salute Jesus, the blessed Fruit of the 
Virgin — to meditate on the mysteries of our Re- 
demption — is not this to love God and Mary, and to 
draw upon one's self all the favors of heaven? 

He who recites his Rosary gathers the roses of 
love. Blessed are those Christian families of which 
all the members, old and young, recite the Rosary in 
common, for, says Our Saviour, "Where two or 
three are gathered in My name, there am I in their 
midst.'' 

But the Holy Eucharist comprises and sums up 
all mysteries. Then although it is good to recite the 
Rosary everywhere, let us, above all, recite it in 
church. With what satisfaction Jesus, present in 
the sacred Host, will listen to the praises we address 
to His Mother and, through her, to His divine 
Heart ! * 

*From The Sentinel of the Blessed Sacrament, October, 
1906. 



CHAPTER LXX. 

Obdix^f tbe /IboDel ot Ibols Wirainitg. 

/T\ARY, the Queen of heaven, is the Mistress of all 
^"*^ the faithful, and especially of those devoted 
to the spiritual life. It is proper, therefore, that we 
honor her not only by prayer and devout practices, 
but still more by the imitation of her virtues. Christ 
our Lord willed that His divine Mother, after His 
glorious Ascension, should remain some years on 
earth to be the teacher of the disciples. In all their 
needs they went to her for advice and instruction. 
In accordance with the will of her divine Son, Mary 
has ever since acted as teacher and model in His 
Church. Her perfect sanctity makes her a shining 
example, a leader for all that are aiming at perfec- 
tion. Among the numerous virtues that adorn the 
Blessed Mother of God, there are three which Re- 
ligious should especially make their own, namely, 
her chastity, obedience, and poverty. 

The first of these virtues, chastity or virginal 
purity, is the most essential adornment of a religious 
soul. Mary was the first among the Jewish maidens 
who,* by divine light, attained to the knowledge of 
the inestimable value of virginity. She loved it more 
than life, and she would not, as it appears, have ac- 
cepted the dignity of divine motherhood had she 
been obliged to sacrifice her precious virginity. 
Learn of Mary to value this holy virtue at its true 
price, and how to preserve it. 

Virginity is called, in the language of all nations, 
the angelic virtue. Its beauty and charm brought 
God Himself down to earth. It is the virtue that 



766 Mary^ the Model of Holy Virginity, 

the new Adam loved with special predilection. To 
those who practice it, He gives, besides a priceless 
peace of heart, the assurance that they shall see God 
and follow the Lamb without spot whithersoever He 
goeth in the new Jerusalem. It is this virtue that 
beautifies the countenance, imparting to it the fresh- 
ness of the lily and the glow of the rose, and which 
raises man above the angels. It is a virtue so lovely, 
so precious, so exquisite, that human language 
hardly dare mention its name for fear of desecrating 
it. The Holy Ghost says: ''No price is worthy of 
a continent soul" (Ecclus. xxvi. 20). All the 
wealth, the rank, and the honors of this world are 
nothing compared with one pure, virginal soul. 

But what means must be adopted to keep the lily 
of virginity pure and spotless ? The first means con- 
sists in mortification of the senses. St. Jerome says 
that he deceives himself who thinks to live among 
sensual pleasures and wickedness without danger of 
falling into sins against the holy virtue. When St. 
Paul was tormented by the sting of the flesh, he had 
recourse to bodily mortification : 'T chastise my 
body, and bring it into subjection" (i Cor. ix. 27). 
If the body is not mortified, it will hardly obey the 
spirit. ''As the lily among thorns, so is my love 
among the daughters" (Cant. ii. 2). As the lily 
preserves its beauty among the pricking thorns, so 
is virginity protected by the rampart of mortifica- 
tion. 

The second means for the preservation of this 
beautiful virtue is humility. Cassian says, "He who 
is not humble can not be chaste." Almighty God 
frequently punishes pride by permitting it to en- 
gender the hideous monster of impurity. King 
David acknowledges this the cause of his own fall : 
"Before I was humbled I oflfended" (Ps. cxviii. 67). 



Mary, the Model of Holy Virginity. 767 

Humility wins purity for us. The stronghold of 
virginity is humility, its custodian is love. He who 
thinks to conquer the revolts of the lower nature 
by continence alone without the virtue of humility 
is like a drowning man who tries to save himself by 
throwing out one hand. 

The third means above and beyond all others is 
prayer. Prayer is absolutely necessary for the pres- 
ervation of the precious treasure of virginal purity. 
If God does not grant us His gracious assistance, 
and for this we must pray, we can not, like the lily 
among the thorns, remain unsullied. The holy 
Fathers tell us that prayer is necessary for the sal- 
vation of adults, and they ground their proposition 
on the words of the Holy Spirit, who says : "We 
ought always to pray, and not to faint'' (Luke xviii. 
i) ; ''ask, and it shall be given you" (Matt. vii. 7). 
The Angelic Doctor teaches that after Baptism con- 
stant prayer is necessary for man. As for every 
practice of virtue the grace of God is needed, still 
greater is the need when the holy virtue is in ques- 
tion, since fallen nature inclines so strongly to the 
opposite vice. Man will not by his own strength 
remain pure and, therefore, in those violent 
conflicts wath the impure spirit, he must cry to the 
Lord with his whole heart in imitation of the Wise 
Man, who says : 'Wnd as I knew that I could not 
otherwise be continent, except God gave it, and this 
also was a point of wisdom, to know whose gift it 
was, I went to the Lord, and besought Him, and said 
with my whole heart" (Wis. viii. 21). 

We must stifle the first mxovements of sensuality 
as we would crush a young snake. If we let it grow, 
it will assume such proportions as are not easily 
overcome. A bad thought or imagination must be 
banished at once. This may ofttimes be accom- 



768 Mary, the Model of Holy Virginity. 

plished by one little word, the holy name of Jesus, or 
that of Mary. A tranquil turning of the mind to 
some other subject, especially an act of love, a re- 
calling of the presence of God, a sigh of the heart 
to the purest of Virgins, any of these will banish the 
tempter. Should he return, be not discouraged. Re- 
new confidence in God, and repeat some little ejacu- 
latory prayer for help. Let us resolve rather to die 
than to commit sin. Let us seek refuge in the 
wounds of Jesus Christ, making the sign of the 
cross on our breast. The three Aves morning and 
evening in honor of the purity of Mary Immaculate 
are a powerful remedy against the assaults of the 
impure spirit. 

Commenting on Mary's virginal purity, the au- 
thor of The Month of Our Lady writes : ''Mary dur- 
ing her whole life employed the most active vigi- 
lance in guarding the inestimable treasure which 
she possessed. Although unknown to the infirmities 
of corrupt nature, she maintained as much watch- 
fulness as if in everything and everywhere she had 
something to fear, something to dread. To keep far- 
ther from herself every enemy of the purity of the 
heart, she cultivated assiduously the virtues of hu- 
mility, modesty, temperance, diligence, silence, and 
devout contemplation — fair and august daughters 
of heaven; and they shielded her against all those 
forces which the world, the flesh, and the spirits of 
darkness marshal in battle to overwhelm our virtue. 
St. Ambrose very well says of Mary that she was a 
virgin not only in body but in mind; that she was 
humble in heart, grave in words, prudent in spirit, 
little inclined to speak, diligent in perusing the Holy 
Scriptures and in avoiding every danger, that she 
might devote herself wholly to God. The Church sa- 
lutes Mary as Mother most chaste. Mother inviolate. 



Mary, the Model of Holy Virginity. 769 

"Mary is Queen of virgins. Her virginity then 
must be embellished with qualities altogether new 
to the world. What more unheard of than virginity 
and motherhood united in the same person ! What 
more new than that a most pure virgin, not knowing- 
man, should give birth to a son! That a virgin 
should become a mother by the operation of the 
Holy Ghost ! That a virgin, free from what is com- 
mon to all other mothers, should become the Mother 
of God ! The decisions of councils on this point, 
the doctrine of the Church, the teaching of the 
Fathers and the divines, are familiar to every 
Catholic. All proclaim that Mary was a virgin when 
she conceived, a virgin when she brought forth 
her son, a virgin forever after."^ The Church chants 
the praises of Mary as a virgin in a manner alto- 
gether peculiar and unknown to other virgins — 
'Virgo sin gill aris/ And does not she alone wear 
the diadem of the Mother of the King of kings, by 
which she claims dominion over angels and saints? 
Did either nature or grace ever produce a virgin like 
Mary ? Mary is most holy among the holy, most 
pure among the pure, a celestial wonder, the mirror 
of virtues, the miracle of the world, the joy of 
heaven and earth. She alone is Virgin and Mother ; 
Virgin without example and without equal ; Mother 
of the Author of grace. She is virgin in body, 
in mind, in look, in thought, in feelings, in word, 
and in work. As the eagle soars above all the 
feathered tribe, the Virgin Mary rises above all 
other virgins. Almighty God Himself, in various 
parts of Scripture, has exhibited under beautiful 
images the singular excellence of the virginity of 
Mary. She is the virgin rose that opens its purple- 
tinted bosom to the kindly influence of the heavenly 
"^St. Aug. de Cat. Rud. c. 22. 



770 Mary^ the Model of Holy Virginity. 

dew; she is the lily among thorns that diffuses 
around an aroma of fragrance; she is the fair and 
innocent dove that reflects all the various colors of 
light in presence of the sun ; she is the immortal 
palm, the incorruptible cedar, the triumphant laurel, 
the turpentine tree with spreading branches and 
dense foliage. She is figured as the terrestrial 
paradise, the tree of Hfe, the well-enclosed garden, 
the sealed fountain, the mirror without blemish, the 
ark of Noe and of the covenant, the little cloud seen 
by Elias, the fleece of Gideon, the tabernacle and 
the Temple. She was the closed gate through which 
was to pass, without its being opened, the God made 
man, the consoler of the afflicted, the hope of Israel, 
the Saviour of the human race, the desire of all just 
souls; He was to throw open the gates of heaven 
closed by sin, and to fill with souls redeemed by 
Himself the seats left vacant by the rebellion of 
Lucifer. These and numberless others were the 
symbols which foreshadowed that illustrious 
maiden, who was chosen to be the Mother of God 
without suft'ering the slightest detriment to her vir- 
ginal purity. 

''Besides the symbols, there are innumerable pas- 
sages in Scripture which allude to the virginity of 
Mary. Isaias clearly foretells that the Saviour 
should be born of a virgin. 'Behold a virgin shall 
conceive and shall bear a son, and his name shall 
be called EmmanueF (Is. vii. 14). Again he 'said, 
'There shall come forth a rod out of the root of 
Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And 
the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him' (Is. xi. 
I, 2). 'The land that was desolate and impassable 
shall be glad; the wilderness shall rejoice, and 
flourish like the lily. It shall bud forth and blos- 
som, and shall rejoice with joy and praise; the glory 



Mary, the Model of Holy Virginity. 771 

of Libanus is given to it ; the beauty of Carmel and 
Saron : they shall see the glory of the Lord, and 
the beauty of our God' (Is. xxxv. i, 2). But while 
he described the blessings of redemption, he fore- 
knew that Christ w^ould be born of a virgin mother ; 
and the honor of the Son redounds to the honor of 
the Mother. When the beauty of a flower is ad- 
mired, the stem which produced it is praised ; when 
the fruits of a tree are carefully watched and gath- 
ered, by the very act the good qualities of the tree 
itself, and the seed from which it arose, are com- 
mended. God, moreover, in the mystic explanation 
of the Church, called her all fair, and without stain 
of sin to tarnish her virginal innocence. Thou art 
all fair, O my love, and there is no spot in thee 
(Cant. iv. 7). Fair as the moon, bright as the sun 
(Cant. vi. 9). As there is no heavenly body more 
beautiful than the sun and the moon, so there is no 
creature more passing fair than the spotless Virgin 
Mary. 

''But the claims of Mary to the title of Queen of 
virgins are not yet exhausted. She consecrated her 
body to God by a vow of perpetual virginity. This is 
the opinion of St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Ilde- 
fonsus, and all the Doctors of the Church. The holy 
Virgin was not ignorant that herself and all other 
creatures belonged entirely to God, because from 
Him they derived their being, and she wished to 
consecrate herself solemnly to Him in the presence 
of angels and men, on the day of her presentation in 
the Temple, when she was only three years of age. 
This resolution was inspired by the Holy Ghost, and 
she executed it with all the devotion and fervor of 
her soul. She loved God with her whole heart and 
her whole strength, and her only thought was to 
give Him pleasure. She knew also that the merit of 



^^2 Mary, the Model of Holy Virginity. 

virginity is increased by the obligation of a vow to 
maintain it ; and she chose the part which was more 
perfect, more secure, and more glorious to the Lord. 
Then were verified in her the words of the Holy 
Ghost, by whom she was already regarded as a 
spouse : 'My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, 
a fountain sealed up' (Cant. iv. 12). The Holy 
Spirit repeated twice the words, 'a garden en- 
closed," because she was equally pure in body and 
soul; and to place her virginity in security she 
reared around it, by means of a perpetual vow, a 
powerful barrier, in order to break all the assaults 
of the unclean spirit of the abyss; and she strength- 
ened this defense by intrusting it to the guardianship 
of humility, modesty, silence, and temperance. St. 
Augustine, and after him the Fathers and theo- 
logians, wishing to prove that the Blessed Virgin 
had consecrated her virginity to God by vow, bring 
forward her words to the angel, when he announced 
to her that she should be the mother of the Word 
Incarnate. 'How shall this be done, because I know 
not man?' (Luke i. 34). Mary by these words did 
not express a doubt that the mystery foretold by the 
angel would have its accomplishment; she wished 
merely to be informed of the manner in which it was 
to be accomplished, bearing in mind the vow of per- 
petual virginity which she had made from her earli- 
est days. Her question to the angel is an evident 
proof that she had dedicated herself to God in soul 
and in body. If she was espoused to Joseph this was 
not the loss, but for the protection, of her virginity. 
"Some, perhaps, before Mary, had the will to pre- 
serve the fair virtue of virginity, as Elias, Eliseus, 
Jeremias, and Daniel ; but before her no one con- 
secrated it to God, and bound the will forever by a 
perpetual vow. Under the old covenant a vow of 



Mary, the Model of Holy Virginity. yy2> 

virginity, or rather sterility, a necessary consequence 
of it, was viewed as a reproach, a disgrace, and a 
curse to a family (Exod. xxiii. 26). When Rachel 
gave birth to Joseph, she exclaimed, *God hath 
taken away my reproach!' (Gen. xxx. 23). When 
the daughter of Jepthe learned from her father that 
she was to be offered in sacrifice, in fulfilment of a 
vow which he had made to the Lord, she said to 
him : 'My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to 
the Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast 
promised. Grant me only this which I desire : Let 
me go, that I may go about the mountains, and may 
bewail my virginity with my companions' (Judges 
xi. 36). Besides the disgrace of celibacy, the de- 
sire of giving birth to the Saviour of the world had 
seized upon the hearts of all Hebrew maidens. In 
the New Testament as soon as Mary unfolded the 
snow-white standard of virginity, innumerable 
bands of virgins immediately rallied around her. 
In the first bloom of their age they consecrated their 
hearts to God, and under the triumphant banner of 
the Virgin courageously and successfully com- 
bated against the devil and the flesh. Thus were 
fulfilled the words of the prophet when he sang to 
the sound of his golden harp : 'After her shall vir- 
gins be brought to the King ; her neighbors shall be 
brought to Thee. They shall be brought into the 
temple of the King' (Ps. xliv. 15). Mary is there- 
fore Queen of virgins, because she was the first to 
bind herself by perpetual vow to maintain unsullied 
the fair and angelic virtue of virginity." 



CHAPTER LXXL 

trbe ITmltatton of /Iftari^ in 1ber ©beOience anD 
In 1ber ^ovcvt^. 

*TAext to the virtue of purity, Mary practiced that 
«^& of obedience in the highest degree. Her will 
was perfectly submissive to the directions of her 
parents, of the priests of the Temple, of St. Joseph ; 
she followed with dociHty every prescription of the 
Law of God ; she hearkened to the words of the 
angel; and she never resisted the inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit. She rose up without delay to go to 
her cousin Elizabeth, and she never sought exemp- 
tion from any one of the Mosaic laws. She sub- 
jected herself and her Son to the law of purifica- 
tion, which was not in any manner obligatory upon 
her, presenting herself in the Temple before the 
high priest, and offering her first-born to the Lord. 
LTnresistinglv she allowed herself to be led into 
Egypt by her chaste spouse, St. Joseph, although 
she was there to be reduced to the direst poverty. 

Mary's whole life was marked by the most per- 
fect obedience, but it shone forth most especially at 
three different epochs. First, she signally exercised 
the virtue of obedience when the angel announced 
to her the joyful tidings of the Incarnation of the 
Son of God in her chaste womb. ^'Behold, thou 
shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth 
a son : and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall 
be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most 
High, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the 



The Imitation of Mary. yy$ 

throne of David His father: and He shall reign in 
the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom 
there shall be no end'' (Luke i. 31). The sweetest 
joy inundated the soul of Mary at these words, but 
she was silent ; she was pondering their meaning. 
She was to become a mother, yet she was resolved 
to remain a virgin. She had vowed her virginity 
to God. What should she do ? At last, she spoke : 
''How shall this be done, because I know not man ?" 
Her words signify : I wish to remain a virgin. 
What will the Lord God do to preserve my virginity 
if I become a mother? Then the angel answered: 
''The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. 
And therefore, also, the Holy which shall be born 
of thee shall be called the Son of God, . . . because 
no word shall be impossible with God." Now did 
the holy Virgin take courage, and with perfect sub- 
mission to the divine decrees, she exclaimed : "Be- 
hold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it done to me 
according to thy w^ord" (Luke i. 38). 

Secondly, Mary's obedience shone forth on the 
day of the Passion of her divine Son, on the day of 
the ignominy of Jesus, Saviour of the world. Mary 
heard the imprecations hurled in wrath against 
Him. Every word was for her a sword of sorrow. 
At the foot of the cross was consummated her death- 
like agony. Other martyrs could, in the midst of 
their torments, fix their eyes on the glory of the 
risen Redeemer, and find therein encouragement, 
but here the loving heart of the Mother had to en- 
dure in the very highest degree all that served to 
increase the shame, the agony of her Son. There 
she stood, her riven heart suffering more than did 
the mother of Moses when she launched the cradle 
of her darling on the treacherous waves, more than 



776 The Imitation of Mary. 

the aged Jacob when his streaming eyes rested in 
horror on the blood-stained mantle of his beloved 
Joseph, more than David when he longed to die for 
his son Absalom. Ah ! that most tender of mothers, 
that most gentle of hearts, in the sight of the hu- 
miliations, the death-agony of her Son, has far sur- 
passed in compassionate anguish the sorrows of all 
others. Who could measure her grief when she saw 
her Jesus fastened to the cross, crimsoned with His 
dripping blood! With that precious blood, which 
the earth drank in at the foot of the cross, were 
mingled the burning tears of the martyred Mother ! 
When she saw the shadows of death gathering upon 
His forehead, when she beheld His head sinking 
upon His breast, when she heard His last sigh, ah ! 
well might she exclaim : ''O, all ye that pass by the 
way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to 
my sorrow!'' (Lam. i. 12,) In all these bitter suf- 
ferings of soul, Mary was submissive to the divine 
will. 

After the Ascension of Our Lord, fresh sorrow, 
fresh sadness swept over the soul of the divine 
Mother, but each new wave found her bowing in 
submission to the heavenly Father. She alone could 
estimate the jewel, the treasure, that had been 
snatched from her by the Ascension of Jesus. O 
how she loved Him, her glorious one ! Her tender- 
ness for Him equaled her thanksgiving for all that 
He had done for the human race. But nevermore 
would it be given her to serve Him, to follow Him, 
to be personally near Him and in direct communica- 
tion with Him as she had been accustomed to be- 
fore His Passion. Yet Mary's obedience never 
swerved. She remained submissive in this vale of 
tears after her beloved Son had passed to eternal 
joy and glory. We have an example of similar 



The Imitation of Mary. yyy 

resignation to the divine will in the holy Bishop 
Martin. Being attacked by a serious illness, he told 
his disciples, who were standing around his bed 
weeping, that he was now going to die. In their 
grief at the prospect of losing him whom they all 
loved so much; they cried out : "Father, why do you 
leave us ? To whom do you leave us in our sorrow ? 
Ravenous wolves will fall on your flock, and who 
will save us from their fangs when our shepherd 
is dead? We know your desire to be with Christ, 
but your reward is secure, and it will be none the 
less for being delayed. Be touched by our great 
need, and think of the dangers in which you leave 
us.'' Martin mingled his tears with those of his 
disconsolate disciples, raised his eyes to heaven, 
and prayed : "Lord, if I am still necessary to Thy 
people, I do not refuse to work. Thy will be 
done V Thus, even in his last moments, the will of 
God was the only rule of the saint's conduct. 

Examine your own heart, and see to what extent 
you have gained a victory over self; how much 
progress you have made in the virtue of obedience. 
Follow the example of the Mother of God. Hence- 
forth, renounce your own will and your own judg- 
ment to follow the will and be led by the direction 
of your Superior. Abandon yourself to the way of 
obedience, for ''no way," says St. Teresa, ''leads 
more quickly to perfection than the way of obedi- 
ence," and nothing does Satan hate more than obedi- 
ence. You must become as little children, else you 
can have no part in the kingdom of God. 

SrSe 39obert2 of iWarj. 

After Jesus Christ, the God-Man, who for love 
of us chose poverty, and that in order to en- 



778 The Imitation of Mary. 

rich us with the highest gifts, there never lived 
a creature in whom poverty found a more worthy 
dwelling-place than the most blessed Virgin Mary. 
This we shall clearly understand when, from the 
teaching of the holy Fathers, we shall become con- 
vinced that true poverty consists not in being ex- 
teriorly poor, but in being interiorly divested of all 
love and desire for earthly goods. 

One of the properties of divine love is to lead the 
soul to despise temporal goods, to find in God her 
most precious treasure, and to love Him as her 
highest good. The truly poor man is rich in God. 
Who can express how rich that man is who owns 
but God alone ! ''They have called the people happy 
that hath these things; but happy is that people 
whose God is the Lord" (Ps. cxliii. 15). No one is 
rich but he in whose soul God Himself deigns to 
dwell. He carries in himself the Source of all good, 
the Father of all treasures, the infinitely good and 
perfect God. The whole world is his. He is with 
God the master, the lord of creation. St. Paul knew 
the happiness of possessing God when he said : "I 
count all things to be but loss for the excellent 
knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord'' (Phil. iii. 8). 
The Blessed Mother of God, the model of religious 
perfection, possessed the virtue of poverty in the 
highest degree. She despised the things of earth and 
trod them under foot, because the Lord was her 
inheritance and possession. She could say with the 
Psalmist : ''Thou art the God of my heart, and the 
God that is my portion forever" (Ps. Ixxii. 26) : 
therefore was she well-pleasing to Almighty God, 
who lavished His graces on her as on no other. For 
all honors and prerogatives bestowed upon her the 
Holy Virgin was grateful. She praised the Giver 



The Imitation of Mary. 779 

while she humbled herself, and the more she praised 
Him the more freely did He pour out on her the 
riches of His love. 

The glorious example of her divine Son was for 
Mary a preeminent motive for practicing poverty of 
spirit. "Our Lord Jesus Christ/' says St. Paul, 
''being rich, became poor for your sake, that 
through His poverty you might be rich" (2 Cor. 
viii. 9). The Prophet Zacharias, also, calling upon 
Sion, says: ''Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion ! 
Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold 
thy King will come to thee the just and Saviour. He 
is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, 
the foal of an ass" (Zach. ix. 9). And St. Luke 
records of Jesus Christ : "The foxes have holes, and 
the birds of the air nests : but the Son of man hath 
not where to lay His head" (Luke ix. 58). The ex- 
ample of Our Lord's poverty influenced the whole 
life of His blessed Mother. Her clothing was poor 
and plain, and the words of Holy Scripture may 
be aptly applied to her: "She hath sought wool and 
flax, and hath wrought by the counsel of her hands" 
(Prov. xxxi. 13). She was poor in her marriage 
with Joseph, the humble carpenter of Nazareth, a 
little city of Galilee. She was poor at the birth of 
her divine Child when, in a deserted stable, without 
attendants or help of any kind, she brought forth 
her Son and wrapped Him in the swaddling 
clothes common to the poor. She was poor in her 
offering when she presented her holy Child in the 
Temple. As she herself was poor and the Mother 
of a poor Child, who was to live and die poor, she 
redeemed Plim with the offering of the poor, two 
turtle-doves. Mary was poor as long as she lived, 
poor in everything. She wanted to be poor while 



780 The Imitation of Mary. 

on earth, that we, by her example, might become 
rich. She loved poverty, which, by divesting of tem- 
poral goods, obtains the riches of eternity. 

As a Religious, you, also, must love poverty of 
spirit after Mary's example. Reflect on the great- 
ness of the recompense that the divine Saviour has 
in store for those who leave all for His sake : 
*' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven'' (Matt. v. 3). 



CHAPTER LXXII. 
IWs^v^, tbe Ibol^ /nbotber ot ©oD* 

1. (^F the glorious birth of the holy Mother 
^^ of God there is something told us in the 
old books. At the time when, in Jerusalem, King 
Herod had reigned about seventeen years, there 
lived in Nazareth a well-to-do man, called HeH, or 
Heliakim, or otherwise Joachim. He was of the 
house of the holy King David, and had married a 
woman of Bethlehem named Anna. They both 
lived justly before God, and walked without blame 
in the commandments of the Lord. They divided 
their means into three parts : the first part they gave 
to God for the Temple at Jerusalem, and for the 
priests of the Lord; the second they gave to the 
poor ; the third they used for their own wants. 

But they had no children, and this was a great 
grief to them. On one occasion, on the feast of the 
dedication of the Temple, Joachim went up to 
Jerusalem to pray. He washed to make his offering, 
but the priest turned him away, for he thought that 
God had cursed him, because ''He had left him 
childless.'' This reproach gave the pious man much 
pain. He went away, -and fasted with Anna, his 
wife ; and together they fervently prayed that they 
might be blessed with a child. They promised that 
the child which God gave to them should be dedi- 
cated to His service. And God at last heard their 
pious prayers. Anna gave birth to a little daugh- 
ter, who was chosen by God to be the Mother of His 
Son. This happened on September 8th, in the year 
733 after the building of the city of Rome. Accord- 



782 Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 

ing to ancient tradition, the birthday of the Mother 
of God was on a Sabbath, which is now the Satur- 
day of the Christian week. 

Of all other saints, the Church keeps the day of 
their death as their feast-day. Only of Our Lord, 
of the Mother of God, and of St. John the Baptist 
does she keep also the day of their birth. And this 
is done because these three holy persons alone were 
born without original sin, and were therefore already 
holy at their birth. 

But the Church keeps up the birthday of the 
Blessed Virgin with so much greater pomp, because 
her birth brought the greatest blessing and joy to 
the whole world. For, first, she is the Mother of 
Our Saviour, Jesus Christ ; she brought to us that 
salvation which poor humanity had sighed for, for 
four thousand years. Secondly, Mary has also be- 
come, in a spiritual way, the Mother of all 
Christians. 

To all those who love her and honor her with 
devotion, she has always shown a motherly love; 
has taken them under her powerful protection, 
and has obtained many miracles for their good. 

2. It was the custom of the Jews to name their 
new-born girls fifteen days after their birth. The 
name which the Mother of the world's Saviour was 
to bear w^as the sweet name of Mary. This name 
was chosen not by the parents of the child, but by 
God Himself. The holy teacher, St. Jerome, says : 
"The exalted name of Mary, which was bestowed on 
the Mother of God, came down from heaven ; it was 
given to her by command of the Lord." 

But when God gives a name, it is always full of 
deep truth and meaning for the one who receives 
it. So, indeed, is this holy name of the Mother of 
God. Mary means as much as 'The Exalted," 'The 



Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 783 

Strong/' "The Mighty," or also "The Lady" or 
"Mistress." And such is the Mother of God in very 
truth. She is the exalted one, for over and above 
her high dignity as the Mother of God there is noth- 
ing for a creature more exalted than the dignity of 
being, through grace, a child of God. She is the 
strong one, for, by the grace which she received 
from God, she has trodden upon the head of the old 
serpent, the wicked spirit, and crushed him, so that 
over her he can have no power. She is the mighty 
one, for, by her intercession with her divine Son, 
she is able to obtain help for all who love her, and 
honor her, and seek her help. She is Lady and 
Mistress, because she is the Mother of the Lord, 
who is King of heaven and earth. And so the name 
of the Mother of God has always been loved and 
revered by true and faithful Christians. Blessed 
Paul of the Cross never uttered it without baring his 
head and bending himself reverently, as though he 
were standing before the very throne of the Queen 
of heaven. The priest must bow his head in the 
holy Mass as often as he repeats the name of Mary. 
And so it came to pass that, even in the olden days, 
men celebrated the feast of "the name of Mary." It 
Avas taken up first in Spain, and had the sanction of 
Pope Leo X. in the year 15 13; and since the 
year 1683 it has been kept up throughout the whole 
Catholic Church. 

3. Of the childhood of the Mother of God there 
is nothing told us in the Holy Scriptures. It was 
not until later that the holy teachers of the Church 
put together what had been related from mouth to 
mouth about the days of Mary's childhood. And 
this is what they have written down : 

The pious parents of Mary, Joachim and Anna, 
had vowed that the child which God might send 



784 Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 

them should be dedicated to His service in the 
Temple of Jerusalem. Now, near to the Temple 
there was a house in which Jewish maidens were 
brought up. There they were instructed in the holy 
Law, learned all sorts of useful work, and had to 
make and cleanse the priestly vestments ; and after 
they had been trained they went back again to their 
parents. To this house of training, and to the ser- 
vice of the Temple, the parents of Mary devoted 
their child. As she was now three years old, they' 
took her to Jerusalem. They carried her up into 
the Temple, and presented her to God with all the 
usual ceremonies. Then they handed her over to the 
priests who had charge of the house of training. 
Mary now parted with her parents, and took her 
place in the community of girls. She was glad she 
had come to Jerusalem, for now she could serve God 
without hindrance, and alone. 

She began at once with all diligence to learn her 
womanly work. She learned to spin and sew, and to 
embroider in gold and silk, for this was needed for 
the priests in God's service. She was also instructed 
in the sacred writings of the Old Testament. She 
learned to understand and to sing the psalms, and 
listened with attention and joy while the priests of 
God related the sacred history, and spoke, from the 
prophets, of the expected Saviour. 

The tender little maiden got up at midnight and 
prayed for herself and for all God's people. In the 
morning she was up again early, and stayed long in 
prayer. Then she went to work till dinner-time. 
After that she read in the Holy Scriptures, until the 
time when the evening offering was made in the 
Temple. She went to that every day, and took part 
with great fervor in the singing of the psalms. She 
was always in the habit of praising God. Whenever 



Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 785 

others saluted her she gave back to them the greet- 
ing, ''Deo Gratias/' that is, 'Thanks be to God." 
St. Jerome thinks that this beautiful expression had, 
in this way, its origin in Mary. 

She was most loving to her companions. She 
served them with joy, helped them with their work, 
and often took the heaviest share of it upon herself. 
She was always gentle and patient. Wherever she 
saw people in trouble, or ill, she had tender com- 
passion for them, and consoled and helped them 
where she could. But above all things she took care 
that none of her playmates should ofifend God by 
sin. St. Ambrose describes the childhood of Mary, 
and says: "She was maidenly in body and in soul, 
and humble of heart. She spoke little and modestly, 
and read diligently in the Holy Scriptures. She did 
not seek to be rich, but trusted in God, and worked 
with great zeal. She never troubled herself about 
the praises of men, but wished only to please God. 
She gave nobody pain, was kind to every one, 
showed respect for old age, and bore no envy against 
her equals.. She avoided all self-praise, followed the 
voice of conscience, and loved to be virtuous. She 
never gave offense to her parents by a single look, 
never despised the poor, never laughed at infirm 
people, and never turned away from the needy. In 
her looks there was nothing unfriendly, in her words 
nothing frivolous, in her walk nothing unbecoming, 
in her voice nothing of harshness. Thus her bodily 
form was a beautiful image of her soul — an image 
of virtue. The life of Mary was so holy that it can 
be a pattern for all mankind." 

While she abode in the Temple, the Mother of 
God made a vow never to be married but, as a vir- 
gin, to live for God alone, if it were pleasing to her 
divine Master. She stayed eleven years in Jeru- 



786 Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 

salem. When she was fourteen years old she went 
back to her parents at Nazareth. She was espoused 
to St. Joseph, after she had learned that such was 
God's will. But after the espousal, while she tar- 
ried for a few weeks in the house of her parents, 
God sent the Archangel Gabriel, and made known 
to her that she was to be the Mother of the Saviour 
of the world. Mary submitted humbly to God's 
decree. And so the eternal Son of God became man, 
and dwelt among us.* 

4. Mary became the Mother of God. ''Rising up, 
she went into the mountainous country with haste, 
into a city of Juda ; and she entered into the house of 
Zachary and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass 
when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the 
infant leaped in her womb : and Elizabeth was filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and she cried out with a loud 
voice and said : Blessed art thou among women ; and 
blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this 
to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to 
me?" (Luke i. 39-43.) And when Mary's days 
were accomplished that she should be delivered, she 
''brought forth her first-born Son" (Luke ii. 6, 7). 
And after eight days were accomplished that the 
child should be circumcised. His name was called 
Jesus, "which was called by the angel, before He 
was conceived in the womb" (21). And uot long 
after, an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to 
Joseph, saying : "Arise, and take the Child and His 
Mother, and fly into Egypt; and be there until I 
shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod 
will seek the Child to destroy Him" (Matt. ii. 13). 
And at the marriage in Cana of Galilee the wine 
failing, the Mother of Jesus said to Him : "They 

*The preceding paragraphs are from Flowers from the 
Catholic Kindergarten, by the Rev. F. Hattler, S.J. 



Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 787 

have no wine ; and she saith to the waiters : What- 
soever He shall say to you, do ye" (John ii. 1-5). 
And is it not written : ''There stood by the cross of 
Jesus, His Mother and His Mother's sister, Mary of 
Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene"? (John xix. 25.) 
Resting upon these reasons and these authorities, 
the Church cut off from her communion those who, 
with heretical wickedness, should attempt to take 
away from the glory of Mary by denying that she 
was the Mother of God (Council of Ephesus, an. 

431). 

Commenting on Mary's dignity as the Mother of 
God, Father Ferran, in his Month of Our Lady 
(translated by the Rev. Dr. John F. Mullany), 
says : Mary, being the Mother of God, is evidently 
exalted in dignity above all creatures. Although she 
is of most illustrious race, of the blood of the 
patriarchs, and of the royal family of David, this is 
naught in comparison with the nobility, incom- 
parably greater, which she acquires from her Son 
(St. Pet. Damascene). The more noble the son is, 
the greater the honor of the mother ; and the Son of 
Mary being of infinite dignity and authority, the 
honor of His Mother must be almost immeasurable. 
She alone can say with the Eternal Father to 
the Eternal Son : ''Thou art my Son : this day 
have I begotten Thee" (Ps. ii. 7). The Father 
says to Jesus, by the mouth of the Prophet : "Thou 
art My Son in virtue of eternal generation." 
Mary, by the Evangelist, says also to Jesus : 
"Thou art my Son in virtue of generation 
in time." And, as the tree is known by its 
fruits, the dignity of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is 
almost infinite (Alb. Mag.). Great is the elevation 
of Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominations, 
Powers, Cherubim, and Seraphim; but they are all 



788 Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 

far inferior to Mary. Great are the Patriarchs, the 
Prophets, the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors, 
but Mary is their Queen. "Mary," says St. Gregory 
the Great, "is the mountain of Isaias on the summit 
of the other mountains ; for she transcends in lofti- 
ness of glory all angels and men. Mary is the sil- 
very moon that illuminates by night the path of the 
traveler. Mary is the sun that by its effulgence 
eclipses the light of all the stars, and rules in splen- 
dor as if the stars had no existence. Fair as the 
moon, bright as the sun." 

The intimate Union also between Mary and God 
declares the sublimity of her dignity. Christ, the 
Son of God, received his human nature from Mary, 
By her divine maternity, therefore, Mary is most 
closely united with the infinite person of Christ; 
hence accrues to Mary a dignity almost infinite. 

"Mary," according to St. John Damascene, "by 
becoming the Mother of the Creator, became at once 
the Queen of all creatures." "Hence," says Gerson, 
"there belongs to Mary a kind of natural dominion 
over the whole universe." "All creatures," says St. 
Bernard, "in whatever rank of being, whether merely 
spiritual, as angels ; or rational, as men ; or corporeal, 
as purely material beings ; all in the heavens and on 
the earth, and in the places under the earth, that are 
subject to the omnipotent dominion of God, are sub- 
ject also to the authority of the holy Virgin Mary." 
The Church sanctions these assertions by saluting 
Mary as Queen of heaven. Queen of angels. Queen 
of the world. 

Mary is the Mother of Christ by nature and she is 
at the same time the Mother of all Christians by 
grace. Mary is not only our Mother in name, but 
she performs every day the part of a most loving 
mother. In the kingdom of glory she implores her 



Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 789 

Son continually in our behalf, for it is He who has 
consigned us to her as children. If Christ is our 
Advocate with His Father, she is our advocate 
with her Son, Christ Jesus, our Saviour. She is the 
Mother of grace for the just man, that he may perse- 
vere and advance in the way of virtue; and she is 
the Mother of mercy for the sinner who has the will 
to be converted to God. To all she says in the words 
of divine wisdom : "I am the Mother of fair love, and 
of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me 
is all grace of the way and of the truth : in me is 
all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all 
ye that desire, me, and be filled with my fruits'' 
(Ecclus. xxiv, 24, 26). ''Blessed is the man that 
heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, 
and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall 
find me shall find life, and shall have salvation from 
the Lord'' (Prov. viii. 34, 35). ''Mary," says one 
of her devout servants, "loves us ardently because 
she adopted us as children, and wishes us to call her 
Mother of love." No precept has been given to 
parents to love their children. This is a love of 
natural necessity. Wild beasts even are taught by 
nature to love their own oflfspring. "Can a woman," 
says Isaias, "forget her infant, so as not to have pity 
on the son of her womb?" And if she should for- 
get, yet will not Mary forget us. She ardently de- 
sired to die with Jesus out of love for us, whom 
He so excessively loved. "The Son was expir- 
ing on the cross," says St. Ambrose, "and Mary 
was in spirit ofifering herself to die with Him for 
our benefit." 

The love of Mary for men arises from her love 
for God. The love of God and the love of our 
neighbor are embraced in the same precept. "This 
commandment we have from God, that he who 



790 Maiy, the Holy Mother of God. 

loveth God must love also his brother" (i John iv. 
21 ). The more love for God increases, the more in- 
creases the love of our neighbor. What did not an 
Alphonsus Liguori perform in the kingdom of 
Naples, a Charles Borromeo in the territory of 
Milan, or a Father Damien among the lepers? 
And why? Because they were inflamed with a 
strong and active love for God. But in love for God 
Mary far excels all the saints ; therefore in love of 
her neighbor Mary is more ardent and earnest than 
they were. Mary loves us because we are her chil- 
dren, given to her by the dying Saviour. And she 
loves us fervently, because Jesus Christ has pur- 
chased us at the infinite price of His Passion and 
death. She knows full well that her Son came into 
the world to seek and save that which was lost. She 
knows that Jesus Christ, although God, emptied 
Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made 
in the likeness of man, and in habit found as a man ; 
that He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. Mary must, 
then, love those whom God loves ; and as God loves 
in order to save, and most ardently desires that we 
all be saved, Mary is for us a loving mother, whose 
whole solicitude is employed to conduct us to 
heaven. 

''In the olden days," says Father Hattler, "when 
sailors traveled out upon the wide and open 
seas, and wished to know in what direction they 
should steer their ship in the darkness, they 
had to fix their eyes upon a certain star in the 
heavens called the pole-star, or the 'Star of the 
sea.' The life of a Christian is like unto a voy- 
age over an unsafe and stormy ocean : it is full of 
dangers and snares, which can sink men into the 
depths of sin and eternal damnation. But Mary.^ 



Mary, the Holy Mother of God. 791 

with her example, and with her helpful intercession, 
is like a guiding star. The Christian, during life, 
should look up to her; he should put her example 
before him, try to imitate her, and pray for her help. 
Whoever does that can never be lost. Therefore 
has Mary been justly called The Star of the sea;' 
and it is a beautiful discourse which St. Bernard 
once made about this. In it he says : 'Mary means 
as much as *'Star of the sea." This name is most 
justly fitting to the Virgin Mother. She is that 
bright gleaming star which rises above the wide, 
vast ocean, shining with her merits, and shedding 
light by her example. Turn not thine eyes away 
from the light of this star if thou wouldst not be 
buried in the waves.' 

''When thou seest thyself upon the stream of 
time, tossed between wind and wave, rather than 
treading upon the firm earth, look up to the Star: 
call, 'Mary!' 

"When pride, or ambition, or calumny, or envy, 
like the wild waves, toss thee hither and thither, 
look up to the Star : call, 'Mary !' 

"When thy heart, with anger, or sinful desires, is 
whipped about like a little ship in a tempest, then 
look up to the Star : call, 'Mary !' 

"When the greatness of thy sins affrights thee, or 
the horror of thy conscience makes thee ashamed, 
and thou beginnest to feel thyself in the grasp of 
despair, as in a whirlpool, dragged down and down 
into the abyss, then look up to the Star : call, 'Mary !' 
In danger, in anxiety, in doubts, think of Mary, 
call on Mary : let her name be ever on thy lips, let 
it always abide in thy heart. 

"But to wm her intercession, depart not from the 
pattern of her life. Only follow her, and thou wilt 
never go astray; call upon her, and thou wilt not 



792 



Mary, the Holy Mother of God, 



despond; think of her, and thou wilt not falsely 
judge. If she takes thee by the hand, thou canst 
not fall; if she protects thee, thou canst know no 
fear ; under her guidance thou wilt never weary ; 
with her favor thou wilt be landed happily. So 
mayest thou learn, in thy own self, how true it is 
what is written : 'And the name of the Virgin was 
Mary, that is. Star of the sea !' '' 

How devotional, how beautiful, how helpful is 
the hymn, ''Ave Maris Stella'' ! Say it frequently 
with great attention and devotion. 



^JVE maris stella, 
ck/r-^ Dei Mater alma, 
Atque semper virgo, 



Felix coeli porta. 
Sumens illud Ave, 

Gabrielis ore, 

Funda nos in pace, 

Mutans Hevae nomen. 
Solve vincla reis, 

Profer lumen csecis, 
Mala nostra pelle, 

Bona cuncta posce. 
Monstra te esse matrem, 
Sumat per te preces, 
Qui pro nobis natus 

Tulit esse tuus. 

Virgo singularis, 

Inter omnes mitis, 
Nos culpis solutos, 
Mites fac et castos. 



BRIGHT Mother of Our 
Maker, hail! 
Thou Virgin ever blest, 
The ocean's Star by which 
we sail. 
And gain the port of rest ! 
Whilst we this Ave thus to 
thee 
From Gabriers mouth re- 
hearse, 
Prevail, that peace our lot 
may be. 
And Eva's name reverse. 
Release our long-entangled 
mind 
From all the snares of ill ; 
With heavenly light instruct 
the blind, 
And all our vows fulfil, 
Exert for us a Mother's care. 
And us thy children, own ; 
Prevail with Him to hear our 
prayer, 
Who chose to be thy Son. 

O spotless Maid ! whose vir- 
tues shine 

With brightest purity; 
Each action of our life refine, 

And make us pure like thee. 



Mary^ the Holy Mother of God, 
Vitam praesta puram, 



793 



Inter para tutum, 
Ut videntes Jesum, 

Semper collsetemur. 

Sit laus Deo Patri, 

Summo Christo decus, 
Spiritui sancto, 

Tribus honor unus. Amen. 



Preserve our lives unstained 
from ill, 
And guard us in our way ; 
That Christ, one day, our 
souls may fill 
With joys that ne'er decay. 

To God the Father, endless 
praise : 
To God the Son, the same ; 
And Holy Ghost, whose equal 
rays 
One equal glory claim. 
Amen. 



CHAPTER LXXIIL 

®ur XaD^ ot tbe Mceec^ Sacrament 

^?^HE pleasing little incidents of the interview in 
^^ which His Holiness Pope Pius X. granted 
official recognition to the title ''Our Lady of the 
Blessed Sacrament" are thus recorded in Emmanuel, 
March, 1906 : A prelate of Canada, whose devotion 
toward the Holy Eucharist is equaled only by his 
benevolence, Mgr. Gautier, Archbishop of Kings- 
ton, was recently in Rome. The Superior-General 
of the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament, Very Rev. 
Father Estevenon, whose headquarters are at the 
church of Saint Claude, a spot well known to the 
pilgrims to the Eternal City, suggested to His Grace 
to petition the Holy Father, in behalf of the faithful 
of his diocese, to grant an indulgence for the recita- 
tion of the little prayer: ''Our Lady of the Most 
Blessed Sacrament, Mother and Model of adorers, 
pray for us !" 

Pleased with the idea. His Grace drew up a 
petition in writing to present to His Holiness in an 
audience appointed for him on December 30th. 
The new title was to be ''Our Lady's new year's 

gift." 

But behold what happened ! During the inter- 
view, having obtained from the Holy Father permis- 
sion to read his carefully worded petition, the Arch- 
bishop could not find it. In vain did he search his 
pockets, in vain were those of his overcoat, which he 
had left in the antechamber, turned inside out. 
Great was the embarrassment of the good prelate, 
and he began viva voce to lay before His Holiness 
the substance of his stray petition. 



Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, 795 

At once, smiling and earnest, with that kind and 
obHging readiness habitual to him, Pins X. took up 
his pen and, without an instant's hesitation, wrote the 
text given below. Then, after signing it, he handed 
it to His Grace of Kingston, who could scarcely find 
words to express his delight and gratitude. 

"Cunctis qui coram SS.mo Sacramento publicae 
adorationi exposito recitaverint hanc iaculatoriam : 
'Doniina Nostra SS.mi Sacramenti, ora pro nobis' 
Indulgentiam trecentorum dierum concedimus. 

"PIUS PP. X. 

''Die 30 mensis Decembris, an. 1905." 

By this rescript an indulgence of three hundred 
days is granted to all who recite the prayer : ''Our 
Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, pray for us !'' be- 
fore the sacred Host exposed for adoration. 

On Our Lady and the Eucharist, Father Faber 
writes as foUov/s : "Who can doubt that there is a 
close and invariable connection between devotion to 
our dear Mother and devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment? The force of terms would be enough to 
prove it. The lives of the saints and the teaching of 
spiritual books are both full of it. But we do not 
need them for proofs, for the experience of every 
one of us proves it decisively to ourselves at least. 
We have felt and known that in proportion as we 
loved our blessed Lady, our devotion to the Blessed 
Sacrament grew more tender and more reverent, 
and the more we w^ere with the Blessed Sacrament, 
even without seeming to think of Mary, the more an 
intense devotion to her took possession of the very 
depths of our heart. This is a phenomenon which is 
universal throughout the life of the Church, and 
which needs no further commentary than the re- 
membrance that one is the Mother and one the Son. 

"Never was mere creature exalted to such a posi- 



70 Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. 

tion of power and empire as was Mary, made 
Mother of mankind at the foot of the cross, when 
her woes were consummated and her heart broken, 
and yet she miraculously lived. But here again the 
light of the sacred infancy is on her. It is as Mother 
of God that she becomes Mother of men as well. It 
is because she bore Him that she had a right to share 
with Him what He endured for us. Again, when at 
Pentecost she, who was all light already, was incon- 
ceivably illuminated and gifted by the Holy Ghost, 
is was as the Mother of the Word that she became 
Queen of the apostles of the Word. The glory of 
her death of love was also the earthly crown of the 
annunciation, and the mystery of the assumption in- 
volved the heavenly crown whereby Our Lord paid 
her for the delightful ministries of her maternal 
love. Of course, all these four mysteries have a 
beauty and a glory and a significance of their own ; 
yet they are what they are, their full beauty and dig- 
nity belongs to them, because of the mysteries of the 
sacred infancy. 

''Our Lady's life may be divided into four mys- 
teries preceding the Incarnation, the immaculate 
conception, the nativity, the presentation, and the es- 
pousals ; then into the four great mysteries of the 
sacred infancy, the annunciation, visitation, nativity, 
and presentation ; and then into four mysteries sub- 
sequent, her compassion, Pentecost, her death, and 
her assumption. These are her twelve stars. Be- 
tween the sacred infancy and the cross there inter- 
vene four mysteries of shadow and of deepest im- 
port, full of glory but a hidden glory or rather a 
seeming shame. These I call the eclipse of Mary, 
wherein she is most especially likened to her Son, 
and drinks deepest of the similitudes of the Incarna- 
tion. They are the finding in the Temple, the mar- 



Ou7' Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. 797 

riage at Cana, Jesus leaving Nazareth to begin His 
ministry, and His words when He was told that she 
was at the door. Full as they are of doctrine and 
devotion, these four mysteries do not concern us 
now. What I wish to point out here is that the 
fountains of her honor are in the four great mys- 
teries of the sacred infancy — the annunciation, 
whereby she became the Mother of God ; the visita- 
tion, which implies His life in the womb ; the nativ- 
ity, when He put Himself into her hands ; and the 
presentation, when He enabled her to offer to God 
an offering as immense as God Himself: and these 
four mysteries cast a light on the four that precede 
the sacred infancy and the four that follow it; and 
the four mysteries of her eclipse would be no mys- 
teries at all but for her divine maternity. Then I 
argue thus: The devotion to the Blessed Sacrament 
is the same as the devotion to the sacred infancy. 
But devotion to the sacred infancy is in fact devo- 
tion to our blessed Lady. Therefore devotion to our 
blessed Lady is devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. 
Judge whether I prove this sufficiently. 

'Those whose spirit leads them to look at every- 
thing as it comes from Jesus, as His doing, or per- 
mitting, or willing, base their devotion to our blessed 
Lady simply on the will of her Son ; and while they 
by no means think lightly of the decrees of God, the 
intrinsic rights of the divine maternity, or the theo- 
logical conveniences which we learn in the schools, 
nevertheless, they repose the devotion to our blessed 
Lady on these three axioms or facts : i. Jesus did not 
come without her. 2. When He came, He made the 
access to Him lie through her. 3. When He went. 
He left her to be to the Church what she had been to 
Him, and, in fact, always works in the Church by 
her, and never without her. Now, look at the first 



79^ Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. 

fact : Jesus did not come without her. She was an 
integral part of the plan of redemption, not a mere 
ornament, as some speak. Can anything be merely 
ornamental in any work of God? It may be 
doubted whether it is consistent with reverence to 
say so. The first thing that meets us in the sacred 
infancy is that He will not be incarnate without her 
consent. That there was the Incarnation was owing 
to her consent, and therefore that there was the 
Blessed Sacrament, which is a daily and hourly re- 
newal of the Incarnation, is owing to her consent. 
What is present in the Blessed Sacrament by the 
force of consecration is just what He took from 
Mary, and only that His flesh and blood. All else is 
present by concomitance. 

''Let us come to the second fact. When He 
came, He made access to Him lie through 
her. When St. John the Baptist was to be sancti- 
fied, it was through her that the grace came. 
She was, as it were, deputed to confer on him the 
insignia of innocence. When the simple shepherds 
came to worship the new-born King in Bethlehem, 
Our Lady stood guardian by the manger. When 
the learned kings of the East knelt to make their 
mystic ofiferings to the omnipotent Child, it was on 
Mary's lap they found Him. Her knees were the 
seat of wisdom. If they kissed the Saviour's feet, 
it was she who interpreted His will, and permitted 
the familiarity and the grace. So, too^ in the 
Blessed Sacrament, the light of her dignity shines 
upon the priests of her Son, and what was once her 
single prerogative has become the office and the 
right of multitudes. For what is Benediction but 
repeating what was done to the shepherds and the 
kings? Only in this, as in all things else, the 
Blessed Sacrament multiplies and enriches the first 



Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, 799 

privileges of the Incarnation ; and, whereas this hap- 
pened once to the shepherds and once to the kings, 
it now happens many times a day all the world over, 
and freely to mixed m.ultitudes of good and bad, 

''Turn to the third fact. He always works in the 
Church by her, and never without her. In dogma it 
has passed almost into a proverb that the doctrine 
about Mary shields the doctrine about Jesus, and 
contains it as she once contained Himself. In ritual 
they are never separated. In devotion they have 
grown together; and in great ecclesiastical epochs 
her action has been manifested to the Church in 
countless ways,, both natural and miraculous. As 
M. Olier and his school have long since been promi- 
nent in teaching, just as St. Bernard taught in his 
doctrine about the mystical neck of the Church, Our 
Lord never seems to act in any notable way in the 
Church, without our tracing the instrumental hand 
and power of Mary. So it was in the sacred in- 
fancy; the world was governed through and from 
her, as the world is governed at this hour through 
and from the species of the Blessed Sacrament. So 
that if you examine it reverently and minutely the 
sacred infancy is itself a picture of the Blessed 
Sacrament and of Mary in the Church ; the Blessed 
Sacrament images the sacred infancy and Mary in 
the Church ; and Mary in the Church is best seen, 
best explained, and best commented upon by the 
Blessed Sacrament and the sacred infancy. How 
far does experience bear out what has been said? 
Why, to so great an extent that in the devout life it 
is almost the same thing to say of a»man that he has 
a great devotion to our blessed Lady, or that he has 
a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. 

''What is all sweetness in communion, all joy at 
Benediction, all inward fluttering of the ravished 



8oo Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. 

heart before the tabernacle, but the antitype of this 
delightful mystery of the Visitation? Has it not 
always been Mary that brought Him to us? Look 
at our past lives. When did we come to love Jesus 
so burningly, so enthusiastically, as we do now; 
when was it^ and where, and how, and what reminis- 
cences are mingled with it all? O my Mother! my 
Mother ! I see as it were threads of gold running 
ever through the web of my past life. They are the 
threads of thy love, thou who hast been my provi- 
dence. I never have a communion but to thee I owe 
it. The tabernaclie, the pyx, the monstrance — the 
very beauty of the mystery is that it is thy Jesus, 
and not another, the body that was formed from 
thee, and not a new one, which consecration brings. 
When I come to thee on thy feasts, to look at thy- 
self, to admire thy beauty, to praise thy grace, to 
glorify God for all thy gifts, to kneel before thee 
and tell thee all my heart in prayer, for thou art 
omnipotent in thine intercession, thou hast Jesus 
with thee, and makest me feel Him even when haply 
I was not thinking of Him in my mind, though 
surely I am always loving Him in my heart. 

''All our best life, all our spiritual life, is nothing 
but a succession of visitations, visitations from Mary 
bringing Jesus with her ; but nowhere is the simili- 
tude so faithful as it is in the Blessed Sacrament. 
How often, when we come near to the tabernacle, a 
secret fire comes forth, and our hearts burn within 
us without apparent cause. Cares fall off, tears are 
dried, doubts melt away, temptations are paralyzed, 
anxieties are alkyed, our soul is bathed in quiet, 
sudden jubilee. Joy, exultation, praise, delight, the 
sense of forgiveness and the spirit of worship — 
these are exactly the fruits produced within us, as 
they were produced in the Baptist's soul. 



Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. 8oi 

'There is no one to whom the mere vicinity of the 
Blessed Sacrament has not been the cause of un- 
numbered blessings/' 

''It does not follow/' writes Pere Eymard, "be- 
cause it is our special office to honor the Eucharist 
that we should lessen our devotion to the Blessed 
Virgin. Far from it. He would be truly displeas- 
ing to Jesus who should say : 'The Eucharist is 
enough for me; I do not need Mary/ Where do 
we find Jesus upon earth? Is it not in the arms of 
Mary? Is it not she who has given us the Blessed 
Eucharist ? It was her acquiescence in the Incarna- 
tion of the Son of God — the divine Word — that be- 
gan the great mystery of reparation to God and of 
the union with us that Jesus accomplished during 
His mortal life, and that He continues in the Eu- 
charist. The more we love the Eucharist, the more 
we shall love Mary. We love what our friend 
loves, and where is creature so loved by God, mother 
so tenderly loved by son, as Mary was by Jesus ? If 
we owe reverence to Jesus, we owe it to Mary also. 
If we adore Him, we must honor her, and to corre- 
spond to, as well as to enter fully into, the graces 
of our vocation, we owe to Mary a special devotion 
as to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. When 
we honor Our Eord on the cross, we pray to Our 
Lady of sorrows ; in the life at Nazareth, it is Our 
Lady of the hidden life who is our model. What 
was the occupation of Mary in the cenaculum ? She 
was in almost constant adoration. She was the 
Model and Queen and Mother of all adorers; 
she was, in a word. Our Lady of the Blessed 
Sacrament. Jesus left her, so to say, fifteen 
years or more on earth after His Ascension 
in order that we might learn from her how to 
adore and serve Him perfectly. Oh, how beau- 



8o2 Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. 

tiful must have been those years spent in adora- 
tion! 

*'At Bethlehem, Mary was first to adore her di- 
vine Son lying in the manger. After her came St. 
Joseph and the shepherds and kings, but it was Mary 
who first laid this train of fire, the fire of divine 
love that should encircle the earth. She continued 
to adore Him in His hidden life, in His apostolic 
life, and in His suffering life on Calvary. Study the 
character of Mary's adoration. She adores Him in 
all the states of His life, and not in a sterile and 
monotonous adoration. She adores Him poor at 
Bethlehem, toiling at Nazareth, and later, teaching 
and converting sinners. She has adored Him upon 
Calvary and suffered with Him. Her love follows 
all the sentiments of Our Lord, which were known 
and divined by her, and into which her sympathetic 
love made her enter in entire conformity. 
• 'To you, also, adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, 
I say, adore always, but vary your adoration as 
Mary varied hers. Enter into and revive all these 
mysteries in the Eucharist. Without this, you will 
fall into routine, and if your adoration is not regu- 
lated and varied by some new thought or motive 
you will become weary and stupid in your prayers. 

''It was thus Mary recalled, on the anniversaries 
of these mysteries that had been accomplished be- 
fore her eyes, their circumstances, their lessons, and 
their graces. She reminded Jesus by them of His 
great love for us. We do not always speak to a 
friend of the present; we recall pleasing souvenirs 
of the past and we contemplate the future. The Eu- 
charist is the compendium of all these mysteries, and 
renews their graces and their love. 

"Mary had such a love for the Blessed Sacrament 
that she could scarcely bear to separate herself from 



Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. 803 

it; she lived in the Blessed Sacrament and passed 
days and nights before the altar. She must cer- 
tainly have lent herself to the needs of the apostles 
and the faithful who sought her aid, but her love 
for her hidden God shone out upon her countenance 
and communicated this ardor to those who ap- 
proached her. Let us honor Mary under the title 
of 'Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament/ Yes, let 
us say, with confidence and love, 'Our Lady of the 
Blessed Sacrament, Mother and Model of all 
adorers, pray for us who have recourse to you !' " 



CHAPTER LXXIV. 

^ari2 ITmmaculate.— ICbe Ifmmaculate Conception 
of tbe Mlcescb IDtrglm 

y^HE work of our Redemption — Christianity in its 
^^ final analysis — -jnust always bring us back to 
Mary. She was the first gentle flower to bloom 
forth in the springtime of the new era, that won- 
drous plant that bore her fruit in motherhood, but 
still retained the blossom of her virginity. The 
name ''Mary'' is interpreted as the ''bitterness of the 
sea," but the bitterness of her Hfe was all her own : 
to us she became the Star of the sea, leading us on 
to our glorious destination. "All generations," she 
says, "shall call me blessed." Twice blessed, rather; 
for virginity and fruitful maternity are woman's 
greatest blessings, and Mary, the virginal Mother of 
the Man of men, became, in the birth of her first- 
born, the spiritual Mother of us all. Such a singular 
combination of prerogatives simply defies exaggera- 
tion. No eulogist of her, however perfect, but can 
say : "Condescend to hear my praises, O sacred Vir- 
gin, and give me strength against thy enemies." 

In the history of God's chosen people special men- 
tion is made of five women who, at different times, 
were the joy and the crown of their age: Mary, the 
sister of Moses and Aaron, who led the Israelites 
through the Red Sea, chanting the while her Mag- 
nificat to the Lord; Abigail, the wife of Nabal, 
David's enemy, whose eloquence and beauty so 
touched the king's heart that he spared her husband 
and her people, and styled her blessed among 
women; Ruth, whom filial devotion led far from 



Mary Immaculate. 805 

home and fatherland, and whose faithfulness finally 
gained for her first place in her master's love and 
house; Judith, who having slain Holofernes, the 
scourge of her people, was styled by them ''the glory 
of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel;" and finally Anna, 
the mother of Samuel — Samuel whom she wrung 
from God by prayers and tears, only to return him 
magnanimously to the Lord. Now it is a singular 
fact, providential surely, that the initial letters of 
these five names, Mary, Abigail, Ruth, Judith and 
Anna, taken in order spell the name Maria; the 
name of her in whom were focused all the virtues 
of those that preceded her and those that followed ; 
who was second only to the Man-God. If a greater 
than John the Baptist was never born of woman in 
the Old Law, surely, with the single exception of 
Christ, a greater than Mary was never born of 
woman in the New. The painter Zeuxis, w^e are 
told, depicted his ideal woman by copying the vari- 
ous graces of many models into one figure, and an- 
cient mythology has it that each divinity lent a 
charm to grace the queen of love. A myth, yes, but 
a myth founded on a fact, on Mary's creation. She 
is that Ruth whose loving heart recked not of home 
or country but only of her people and her Lord ; she 
is that Judith who slew man's bitterest foe when she 
crushed the head of the serpent ; she is that Abigail 
by whose eloquent beauty the wrath of the King of 
kings was turned to mercy. The Child of her 
prayers she gave, like Anna, freely to the Lord ; but 
most of all she is that Mary who alone of mortals 
passed through the sea of this sinful world dry-shod 
and without a stain. Man may say that but for Eve 
Adam had never sinned; he may point to his sex 
deified in the person of the Saviour ; but still, speak- 
ing of the purely mortal, we can and do turn to a 



8o6 Mary Immaculate. 

woman, to Mary, and salute her in the words of the 
poet as : "Our tainted nature's soHtary boast." 

In the x\pocalypse Mary is described as the 
woman clothed with the sun of God's effulgent 
grace, the moon, the changeful moon, under her feet, 
and on her head a crown of stars, the brightest star 
of them, all her Immaculate Conception. Alone of 
mortals, she, from the instant of her creation, was 
preserved from the stain of original sin. We read 
that the Prophet Jeremias and John the Baptist 
were sanctified in their mothers' wombs, but still 
each was created, each conceived, in sin. In fact, with 
Alary as a solitary exception, every child of Adam is 
heir to Adam.'s guilt. In the beginning God made 
man right, says Ecclesiasticus, right with the recti- 
tude of order, his soul and its higher powers subject 
to God, his lower nature subject to his reason and 
will, and the whole visible universe subject to the 
composite man. The world was then an earthly 
paradise, no labor, no want, no affliction from with- 
out, no misery from within, but happiness and im- 
mortality here, and the assured vision of God here- 
after. But man, like the angels, was tried, and 
man, like the angels, fell. The angels sought equal- 
ity with God in power, and man, equally guilty, 
sought equality with God in knowledge. And as in 
their case so in other and all cases ; self-exaltation 
ended in humiliation, for God anathematized man 
and freed his subjects from their allegiance to him. 
"'Cursed be the earth," He said ; ''thorns and thistles 
will it bear thee. Thou shalt labor and toil all the 
days of thy life, and as dust thou art, so unto dust 
thou shait return." Original sin, with its effects, 
was the complete subversion of the primitive har- 
mony established between God and man, between 
man's higher and lower natures, and between man 



Mary Immaculate. 807 

and the world; and this sin and its effects we all 
inherit. "Behold," says the Psalmist, '*I was con- 
ceived in iniquities, and in sin did my mother con- 
ceive me." And St. Paul adds, ''As by one man sin 
entered this world, and by sin death ; so death hath 
passed upon all men from him in- whom all men 
have sinned." As the wages of sin is death, and as 
all men die, we must naturally conclude that all men 
are conceived children of wrath in original sin. It 
stains the unborn, and the newly born ; it stains man 
in whatever stage of unbaptized existence he may 
be, for only sin excludes from happiness, and Christ 
has said: ''Unless a man be born again of water and 
the Holy Ghost, he can never enter the kingdom of 
heaven." The Church attests this fundamental 
dogma by celebrating the feasts of the saints, not 
on the day when in sin they came into this world, 
but on the day of their death, when, sinless, they 
passed to glory. St. Jerome discourages inquiry as 
to how original sin is transmitted, saying: 'Tt is as 
though one fallen overboard were asked, * How came 
you there?' and should reply, 'Ask not how I came 
here, but seek rather how^ you may get me out.' " 

Anyhow, our natures were corrupted in Adam 
and Eve as waters in their source, with this differ- 
ence, that human nature is not purified in transmis- 
sion. As the different members of my body may 
become guilty of crime, though not acting by their 
own volition but under the influence of my perverse 
will, so we, as we are of the great body of human- 
ity, contract the guilt of a sin of which the head 
alone was guilty. Adam and Eve were a repre- 
sentative committee of two, chosen from the 
myriads of human possibilities. Theirs was a test 
case ; their fate our fate ; so that we all share in their 
sin and punishment as we should have shared in 



8o8 Mary Immaculate. 

their happiness had they remained faithful to God. 
One single exception is recorded — the Virgin Mary. 
Of her alone we can say with the Canticle : ''All 
beautiful art thou and there is no stain in thee.'' In 
St. John's vision of her the moon under her feet 
denotes the absence in her of all stain or change- 
denotes her to be as Longfellow styles her: 'The 
peerless queen of air, who as sandals to her feet, 
the silver moon doth wear." 

For us Catholics the ultimate proof that Mary was 
immaculately conceived must ever be the fact that 
for centuries this truth was accepted by the entire 
Catholic world, and defined at last as an article of 
our faith by Pius IX. in 1854. Nor are we without 
reasons for the faith that is in us. This privilege 
of Mary was foreshadowed in the words of God to 
the demon-seducer of our first parents : 'T will put 
enmity between thee and the woman, and thy seed 
and her seed, and she shall crush thy head." We 
can readily understand the enmity between Mary's 
Son and Satan, but that Mary herself should, as 
promised, vanquish the serpent, is explainable only 
on the theory that she was never for an instant sub- 
ject to him by sin, that she was immaculately con- 
ceived. Jesus and Mary were prefigured in Adam 
and Eve — they are as like as the light of to-day and 
to-morrow, and yet they differ as the waning twi- 
light from the coming dawn. Adam's hands, out- 
stretched toward the forbidden fruit, point to death 
and darkness ; the hands of Christ in Gethsemane, 
receiving from the angel the chaHce of His suffer- 
ings, point to life and light : and it was not until 
the w^ater from the side of Christ on the cross 
trickled down on Adam's skull that life met death in 
Baptism. Ad^m was made -of immaculate earth, as 
yet uncursed — a true figure of the stainless Virgin 



Mary Immaculate. 809 

who was to conceive and bear the Saviour. ''Hoh- 
ness becometh Thy house, O Lord," says the Psalm- 
ist ; and Mary's body was the house of the Lord ; 
the material from which He built Him an earthly 
habitation. Christ was the wisdom of the Father, 
and Holy Writ has it that 'Visdom will not enter 
into a malicious soul nor dwell in a body subject 
to sin." To deny the Immaculate Conception of 
Mary is, to my mind, scarcely less blasphemous 
than to assert that the humanity of Christ Himself 
was stained with original sin, for did He not be- 
come flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone ? And 
who does not recoil in horror from the thought that 
even the adorable body and blood of Christ in the 
Sacrament of the altar should have had its origin 
in anything defiled by sin? The Immaculate Con- 
ception of Mary is a necessary corollary of Christ's 
absolute sinlessness. It was asserted by John the 
Baptist when he refused to baptize the Saviour in 
the Jordan. It was asserted by Christ Himself when 
He demanded of His enemies : ''Which of you shall 
convince Me of sin? And what fellowship is there 
of God with Belial?" 

But apart from her divine Son, Mary in the 
Scripture vindicates in her own person this article 
of our faith. Mary's destiny was to undo what Eve 
had done, and whatever in the order of grace Eve 
lost Mary regained. Mary is the direct antithesis 
of Eve. Ave, Eva, even their names are an in- 
version, the one of the other. It was due to God's 
dignity and power that His fair creation should be 
restored by exactly the same means wherewith by 
the demon it had been destroyed. Eve sprang from 
Adam and became his mother in error and death; 
Mary sprang from God and became the Mother of 
the Man-God — the truth and the life. Eve con- 



8io Mary Immaculate. 

sented to the prince of darkness, but it was to an 
angel Mary said : ''Be it done unto me according to 
thy word/' Mary brought forth her Son without 
loss of virginity and without pain, whereas had she 
ever even for an instant been the subject of original 
sin God's words would have been verified of her 
as of every daughter of Eve : ''I will multiply thy 
sorrows and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth chil- 
dren." Eve came to fill the world with the thorns 
and thistles of human afflictions, but the Canticle, 
speaking of Mary's conception, says: "The winter 
is now past, the rain is over and gone, and the 
flowers have appeared in our land." She is the 
flower of the field and the lily of the valley. *'As 
the lily among the thorns," says the Canticle, so is 
Mary among the daughters of Eve. She is the 
fleece of Gideon, bathed in the heavenly dew, while 
all around was parched with the breath of helL 
Upon Mary, says the Psalmist, grace came down as 
the dew upon the fleece, and from her it spread 
broadcast, and was increased by the preaching of 
the Apostles and their successors, until it became as 
showers gently falling upon all the land, for their 
sound hath gone forth into all the earth and their 
words unto the ends of the world. She is the ark of 
Noe, unsubmerged by the universal deluge of sin ; 
alone on the world of waters, a solitary refuge for 
the remnant of mankind. 

There is one more text of Scripture from many 
that might be adduced concerning the Immaculate 
Conception. In the sixth Canticle we read : "Who is 
she that cometh forth as the dawn ; fair as the moon, 
bright as the sun ; terrible as an army set in array ?" 
All the beauties of Nature, of the day, of the night, 
and of the intervening time — the aurora — are here 
attributed to Mary. She came as the dawn, pure 



Mary Immaculate. 8ii 

and sweet, with the promise of a glorious day. St. 
Francis of Assisi loved to meditate gazing on the 
rising sun: *'For," said he, ''with the eye of faith I 
can see therein the dawn of man's Redemption." It 
was another and beautiful way of saying that he 
loved to meditate on Mary's Immaculate Concep- 
tion. ''Fair as the moon." In all nature there is 
nothing lovelier than the pale queen of night, as 
with stately tread she ascends the throne of heaven^ 
while the stars, like flowers, strew her royal way. 
She shines with a borrowed light, 'tis true, as Mary 
did, but still star differs from star in glory, and 
Mary is the brightest of them all. And lest we 
should imagine that, like the moon, there is any spot 
or change in her, the Canticle adds that Mary is 
bright as the sun.- One and the same halo surrounds 
Mary and the Child in her arms. If a brief vision 
of God on Mount Sinai made the face of Moses 
shine like the sun, what shall we say of Mary, who 
for thirty long years basked in the smiles of the 
Saviour ? Through her the light of divine truth and 
the warmth of divine love suffused this world, thaw- 
ing out the congealed heart of the sinner and start- 
ing up the rivulets of human sympathy. Finally, to 
tlie powers of darkness she is terrible as an army set 
in array. As the shadows of night fly westward in 
confusion before the dawning aurora, so the demons 
before the coming of Mary ; for she was the first to 
throw off the yoke of Satan, the first to put his 
forces to flight. "^ 

The Rev. Charles Coppens, S.J., in an article in 
the American Ecclesiastical Review for May, 1904, 
the year in which the Church celebrated the golden 
jubilee of the definition of the dogma of Mary's Im- 
maculate Conception, advances this argument : 
*Frbm Baxter's Sermons from the Latins. 



8 12 Mary Immaculate. 

*'That God could exempt a soul from contracting the 
stain of Adam's sin, no man can deny; that He 
should have wished to do so in the case of the most 
highly favored among His creatures, was most per- 
fectly suitable to His infinite wisdom and goodness. 
What Christian father would not, if he could, bestow 
such a favor on his favorite child ? What dutiful son 
would refuse to exemipt his mother from the dis- 
grace of becoming a bondwoman to his bitterest 
enemy? What honorable man would not share his 
own stainless honor with his beloved spouse? And 
is not Mary the favorite Daughter of God the 
Father ; the blessed Mother of God the Son ; and the 
beloved Spouse of the Holy Ghost? Was it to be 
expected that Christ, who came to destroy sin, 
should leave the stain of it to defile, for a time. His 
own Mother's soul? As He was a totally sinless 
man, so, as was most proper. He made His blessed 
Mother a totally sinless woman. Having shed His 
sacred blood to wash away the stain of sin, He or- 
dinarily applies His merit to each soul in Bap- 
tism; but to His Mother's soul He applies it at 
the moment of creation. She, therefore, owes all 
her sinlessness to Him; she shared in his Redemp- 
tion, but in a more excellent manner than all other 
men." 

'* Against those," writes Father Lambing in his 
excellent booklet, The Immaculate Conception, "who 
would argue that the doctrine of the Immaculate 
Conception would go to prove that Mary was not 
actually redeemed, and that consequently her ex- 
emption from the sin of Adam was contrary to the 
whole economy of God's dealings with man. Dr. 
Ullathorne reasons in this masterly way : He who in 
the face of the universal law gave sanctity to the 
soul of John the Baptist before he was born, could 



Mary Immaculate. 813 

give sanctity to the soul of Mary at the moment of 
its conception. But in that case, was Mary a child 
of redemption? Was she the offspring of His 
glorious blood? Most assuredly was she redeemed 
by His blood. Her redemption was the very master- 
piece of His redeeming wisdom. It presents one in- 
stance more, the very noblest, of that law of accum- 
ulation of excellences, as the one absolutely perfect 
work of redemption. For, to enter upon the cele- 
brated argument of Scotus, Our Lord is the univer- 
sal Redeemer and most perfect Mediator. Must we 
not, then, look for some most complete and exquisite 
example of His mediatorial and redeeming powers ? 
An example of such surprising excellence that a 
greater can not be imagined? And if He has not 
wrought that absolutely perfect redemption in His 
blessed Mother, of whom alone it is predicated, has 
He yet put forth in any case His full powers of re- 
demption ? 

''He who prevents the disease is a greater physi- 
cian than he who cures it after it has been con- 
tracted. He is the greater redeemer who pays the 
debt that it may not be incurred, than he who pays 
it after it has fallen on the debtor. It is a greater 
good to save us from sin that we may not sin, than 
to save us from sin after we have sinned. It is a 
more blessed mediation to prevent us lest we should 
offend the majesty of God, than to appease His 
anger after we have offended. And so St. Bernard 
says of the angels who stood, that Christ saved them 
by His grace, that they might not fall, and was in 
that way their Redeemer. And if Our Lord exer- 
cised a greater power of redemption over Mary than 
over others, by preserving her from actual sin. He 
exercised His greatest power by preserving her 
from original sin.'" 



8i4 Mary Immaculate. 

As the Rev. D. I. McDermott says in his Sermons 
on the Blessed Virgin: "The one grand leading idea 
presented for our consideration in almost every part 
of the Mass and the Office of the feast of the Im- 
maculate Conception is, that Mary was the taber- 
nacle, temple, house, so to speak, in which the Re- 
deemer of the w^orld lived for nine months ; and 
that all the graces with which Mary was enriched 
were given her to make her a dwelling-place worthy 
of the Son of God. In the prayer at Mass this 
morning, the Church says : O God, who didst cause 
that a virgin should be conceived without sin, to the 
end that she should be made a meet dwelling-place 
for Thy Son : O God, who through the precious 
death of Thy Son foreseen by Thee didst keep her 
clean from all stain, hear us, we beseech Thee, and 
grant that by her prayers, we also who are presently 
defiled may finally be made pure, and so with her 
attain unto Thee. In the Office of this feast, the 
Church applies to Mary these words : 'Wisdom has 
built for Himself a house.' The divine Architect, 
however, never fails to attain His purposes, to exe- 
cute satisfactorily His designs. He that annihilated 
Himself in becoming man might have dispensed 
with many things which would, according to our 
worldly notions, have befitted His abode, but what 
one thing must He have, by very force of His na- 
ture, excluded from it? 

''According to the Apostle, Our Lord became 
like unto us in all things except — in what ? Except 
in sin. 

"Sin, therefore, must have been excluded from 
this. His carefully considered house. 'The Arch- 
itect,' says St. Proclus, 'was not dishonored in His 
work, for He dwelt in the house He Himself had 
built. The clay did not soil the potter in refashion- 



Mary Immaculate, 815 

ing the vessel he had molded. Nor did aught from 
the Virgin's womb defile the most pure God ; for 
as He received no stain in forming it He received 
none in proceeding from it.' If holiness became the 
material temple wherein God dwelt in the spirit of 
His power, how much more, then, did it become the 
living temple in which He dwelt for nine months? 
The temple in which, according to a spiritual writer, 
were forged the weapons by which He overcame the 
devil — the 'House of Gold' enclosing the well- 
spring whence He drew that blood, one drop of 
which was capable of saving the world. Well, then, 
may we cry with the Psalmist : 'Holiness becometh 
Thy house, O Lord !' Well, then, may we cry out 
in the words of the Office of the day : 'The Most 
High sanctified His temple, placed its foundations 
in the holy mountain, and built it in the sun.' " 

"The ancient tabernacle formed by men," writes 
the author of Lessons from Our Lady's Life, "was 
necessarily incomplete, even as the rites and cere- 
monies of old were but types of the perfect Sacrifice 
to come; but Mary came into the world perfect 
from the hands of God. Mary was the holy of 
holies in very truth, the temple of the Most High, 
the tabernacle of the Holy Ghost, and through her, 
as the Mother of the Victim, the supreme, all-avail- 
ing Sacrifice was offered to God for man. Before 
her very birth she was 'blessed among women,' spot- 
less as befitted the predestined Mother of the Most 
High. To understand the dignity which her Im- 
maculate Conception confers on Mary we must real- 
ize the full value of the human soul in the eyes of its 
Maker. The body, indeed, is formed of the dust of 
the earth, but the soul is the very breath of God. 
Made to His image and likeness, instructed by His 
voice, sanctified by His Holy Spirit, redeemed by the 



8i6 Mary Immaculate. 

blood of His only Son, how much is the soul worth! 
If an ordinary soul, subject to many frailties and 
marred with many blemishes, be yet so precious in 
the sight of God, what must be the dignity of Mary, 
whose soul was absolutely free not only from actual 
sin but also from that inherited stain common to hu- 
manity ? 

''The consideration of the Immaculate Conception 
of our holy Mother should fill us with the greatest 
reverence for that wondrous purity which raised 
her above all creation, and which she carried unsul- 
lied throughout her life. 'The Immaculate Concep- 
tion,' said a holy riun lately called away, 'suggests 
thoughts of joy and comfort. Of joy — for as a 
child is proud of its mother, may we not rejoice in 
the beauty of Our Lady — '^Tu honorificentia populi 
nostri'' — who won the admiration of men, angels, 
and of God Himself — ''Gratia plena, tota pulchra 
es''? Of comfort — for it was for mankind as well as 
for herself that Mary received the grace of freedom 
from sin, in order that she might bring forth Our 
Lord, through whose merits she has especial power 
of dispensing to us purity of conscience. . . . How 
dear was purity to her, since to keep it in its 
original splendor she would have sacrificed the 
greatest of honors — divine maternity.' Let us 
honor the immaculate purity of Mary by endeavor- 
ing to become like her. She was sinless even in her 
conception, that she might be worthy to bring forth 
the Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world, 
and she desires sinlessness in her children. For love 
of our spotless Mother, then, let us resolve to fly 
from all occasions of sin, to refrain from even the 
smallest deliberate fault, that her pure eyes may find 
in us naught to ofifend their gaze." 

"Well may the enlightened Christian," exclaims 



Mary Immaculate. 817 

a pious author, ''make a pilgrimage ... to the 
Heart of Mary. If he feels with St. Paul that he 
has been redeemed at a great price, if he values 
with St. Peter more than the corruptible gold and 
silver of this world the blood of Christ in which he 
has been redeemed, well may he go and prostrate 
himself before the heart of Mary, and worship with 
humble reverence before that fountain from which 
the saving tide of redemption has flowed upon him.'* 



CHAPTER LXXV. 
^ater Boloroea^— ©ur Mceecb Aotber of Sorrows* 

^^HERE is a group of statuary called the 'Tieta/' 
^^ which reminds us of all the sorrows of the 
Blessed Virgin, not by representing them all, but by 
presenting to our view that scene in the sacrifice of 
Calvary wherein the dead body of the Saviour, after 
having been taken down from the cross, is laid in 
the arms of the Mother of sorrows; that moment 
when Mary gave to Jesus the last sad look and the 
last loving embrace ere His sacred body was con- 
signed to the tomb. When we behold the dead body 
of Christ pressed to the bosom of the Virgin 
Mother, when we behold Mary's searching, agoniz- 
ing glance into the sightless eyes, and into the 
gaping wounds of Jesus, we need not be told what 
had been up to this the Son's sufferings or the 
Mother's sorrows. Just as the last kiss on the brow 
of a loved one cold in death brings, in an instant, be- 
fore the mind, the incidents of his last sickness, even 
the whole life of the dead, so one look on this group 
recalls all the incidents of Our Lord's suffering and 
of Our Lady's sorrow, with the distinctness and 
vividness with which a flash of lightning reveals ob- 
jects in the darkness. 

To-day it will be my endeavor to impart to you 
some idea, however faint, of Mary's sorrow, al- 
though to do so would be a difficult task for one pos- 
sessed of the greatest learning, the most vivid 
imagination, and the most eloquent tongue. That 
we may learn how hard it is to form any adequate 
idea of Mary's sorrow, the Church applies to her the 



Mater Dolorosa. 819 

words of the Prophet Jeremias : ''To what shall I 
compare thee, or to what shall I liken thee, O 
daughter of Jerusalem ? To what shall I equal thee, 
that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Sion ? 
For great as the sea is thy destruction" (Lam. ii. 

13)- 
Who can measure the sea? While sailing across 

its vast expanse the largest vessel seems but an atom 
on its bosom. In sight is a great waste of water, 
which is but as a drop in comparison with those 
mighty wastes of water which the horizon conceals 
from view\ At certain points, the length, breadth, 
and depth of the sea may be measured ; at others it 
stretches out and sinks down so far and so irregu- 
larly as to baffle all human efforts to estimate its 
volume. Thus the sea, while not infinite in extent, 
is, humanly speaking, immeasurable. 

This is why the sea is truly a picture of Mary's 
broken-heartedness. Now and again, definite views 
are obtained of certain features of Mary's sorrow, 
which, for the moment, seem to afford some basis 
for an accurate estimate of her sufferings. When, 
however, an attempt is made to measure them., other 
aspects of the intensity, duration, and bitterness of 
her dolors are revealed in such bewildering propor- 
tions as to render futile all efforts to measure the sea 
of her broken-heartedness. Thus reflection shows 
us that Mary's sorrow^ though falling short of the 
infinite, is measureless. 

Some notion of Mary's sorrow may be formed 
from the consideration of the three things personi- 
fied in the 'Tieta/' vk., her love, her pity, and her 
compassion. 

The greatness, the intensity of love depends upon 
the power to love and the attractiveness of the object 
on which love is bestowed. The faculties of man's 



820 Mater Dolorosa. 

soul are developed by his virtues or dwarfed by his 
vices, just as man's sensibility to pain is increased by 
healthfulness or diminished by sickness. As disease 
dulls, deadens the nerves in certain forms of sickness, 
until the power to suffer is so decreased or destroyed 
that the body may be cut or burned without the af- 
flicted one experiencing any sensation of pain, so sin 
hardens the heart, dries up the fountains of compas- 
sion in the soul until the very power to love or sym- 
pathize with others is either lessened or altogether 
lost. 

Sin, the Catechism says, darkens the understand- 
ing, weakens the will, and begets an inclination to 
evil, until vice finally renders the soul indifferent to 
all its obligations, dead to all the noble sentiments 
that should glow in it. Through wickedness, pa- 
rents become heartless, insensible to all the claims of 
children; and spouses to the fidelity and affection 
which should be cherished between husband and 
wife. In his epistle to the Romans, St. Paul sums 
up in these words the consequence of the vices into 
which the pagans had fallen : ''Foolish, dissolute, 
without affection, without fidelity, without mercy." 
In his epistle to Timothy, the Apostle says of those 
given to a reprobate sense, that they are without 
natural aft'ection. In a word, sin tends to make 
monsters of men. 

As, then, in proportion to the ravages of disease, 
the body becomes insensible to pain, so, in propor- 
tion to their degradation, do sinners lose natural af- 
fection. As the greatest capacity for physical suf- 
fering exists in the sound, perfect body, so natural 
affections are developed and strengthened in propor- 
tion to the sanctity of the soul. 

Mary was sinless, preserved by a singular privi- 
lege from both original and actual sin. Her soul re- 



Mater Dolorosa. 821 

mained unclouded by even the shadow of any im- 
bruting passion. She not only retained unimpaired 
all the natural feelings of her pure heart, but she 
cultivated them to the highest degree possible for a 
creature to attain. So eminent in sanctity did she 
become, that the Archangel Gabriel said to her : 
''Mary, thou hast found favor with God.'' As her 
holiness surpassed that of the angels of heaven, her 
power to love exceeded that of the cherub or seraph. 

The strongest form of human love is maternal af- 
fection. "Can a woman," asks the Lord through the 
mouth of the Prophet Isaias, ''forget her infant so as 
not to have pity on the son of her womb ? And if she 
should forget, I will not forget thee." Here God 
speaks of a mother forgetting the child of her womb 
as an almost impossible contingency, and finds in a 
mother's love the highest type of His own undying 
affection for His creatures. 

Mary was the Virgin Mother. Hers was the 
heart of the Immaculate Virgin and of the divine 
Mother. It is evident, therefore, that Mary by 
nature and by grace had, of any creature, the great- 
est capacity to love, to pity, and to suffer ; and as she 
had consecrated herself entirely to God there were 
neither worldly interests nor human ties to divide 
her love, or divert it from her divine Son. It was 
centered wholly in Jesus. 

Maternal instinct often blinds women to their 
children's deformity or depravity ; it impels them to 
love, to cling to them when they have neither beauty 
nor goodness to excite or retain affection. Mary, 
however, loved Jesus because He was infinitely 
worthy of her love. No mother ever had such a son. 
Mary's Son was both human and divine, the fruit of 
her chaste womb, "the splendor of the Father's glory 
and the figure of His substance," at once the Son of 



822 Mater Dolorosa. 

Mary and the Son of God. For three and thirty 
years had she seen Him develop into the comeHest of 
the children of men ; for three and thirty years she 
had seen Him increase ''in age and wisdom and grace 
before God and men/' had seen not only the beauty 
of holiness, but the divinity itself light up His 
features ; for three and thirty years she had admired 
His beauty, wondered at His wisdom, revered His 
virtues, adored His divinity. 

Thus in Mary was concentrated, as in one con- 
suming flame, the strongest affection a mother ever 
cherished for a child, and the intensest love a 
creature ever bore the Creator. And, since it was 
impossible for greater love to exist than that which 
united Jesus and Mary, there could be no greater 
sympathy than that which existed between them. 
Every suffering inflicted on the sacred humanity of 
Jesus was a sword that pierced Mary's soul. 

While the love of Jesus has been the sole support 
and consolation of the martyrs in their suffering, it 
was the cause of the exceeding bitterness of Mary's 
sorrow. St. Augustine says of St. Lawrence : ''In- 
toxicated with the wine of divine love, he felt neither 
torments nor death." Father Faber says : ''The 
great support of the martyrs is that their inward eye 
is bent on Jesus. It is because that within is stronger 
than that without, that they are joyful amid their 
torments. It is not that their agonies are not real, 
but that they are tempered, counteracted by the suc- 
cors which the soul supplies, from the grace and love 
with which their generous Master is at the moment 
filling them to overflowing." 

On the other hand, Jesus was the sole cause of His 
Mother's grief. Therefore, St. Liguori, quoting 
Diez, says : "While the other martyrs are repre- 
sented as bearing the instruments of their suffering 



Mater Dolorosa. 823 

and death, St. Paul with the sword, St. Andrew with 
the cross, St. Lawrence with the gridiron, Mary is 
represented (in the Tieta') as supporting her dead 
Son, because Jesus Himself was the instrument of 
her martyrdom.'' 

Of Mary, Father Faber says : ''Her sinless body 
was deHcately framed for suffering beyond all 
others, except that of her Son. The more refined and 
delicate the soul, the more excruciating its agony.'' 

Pity is the feeling by which we are moved to re- 
lieve another's distress. It often lingers in the 
breast after the other sentiments of humanity have 
been extinguished. It is so general that it may be 
said that one touch of pain makes the whole world 
kin. It may be exercised when there is neither love 
nor esteem felt for the sufferer. 

"Careless their merits or their faults to scan, 
Pity gave ere charity began," 

says the poet. It not seldom, degenerates into a 
morbid sentimentality because extended to criminals 
in such a way as to lessen the horror of crime. It is 
found in its true character and strongest aspect 
when the sufferer is punished for adhering" to a 
righteous cause, and where the heart of the sympa- 
thizer is filled with love and justice and mercy. If 
then there ever was a heart that could pity, it was 
Mary's; if ever there was an object that called forth 
pity, it was Jesus. The exquisite perfections of His 
body and the noble sentiments of His soul rendered 
Him most sensitive to insult and to pain ; His tor- 
ments were the most excruciating ever endured ; He 
had not a single consolation. He suffered unjustly; 
He endured all tortures uncomplainingly; He suf- 
fered unselfishly, dying that sinners might live. 
Mary knew all this. She knew how every insult 



824 Mater Dolorosa. 

and blasphemy sickened His soul ; how every wound 
made His flesh quiver with pain. She knew that He 
had labored only for the salvation of men; and 
therefore, she knew how His soul shrank in horror 
from the false accusations brought against Him; 
how ingratitude, sharper than the serpent's tooth, 
had stung Him to the quick. 

How her heart must have been touched, melted 
with pity, when she saw Him in the hands of His 
enemies, bearing the cross and crowned with thorns, 
surrounded by an infuriated rabble demanding His 
death ! How her sympathetic soul must have gpne out 
to Him as she accompanied Him to the place of cru- 
cifixion, as she saw Him nailed to the cross, as she 
witnessed Him hanging on the tree, as she saw Him 
die, as she embraced His lifeless body before it was 
laid in the grave ! 

What a relief would it have been to Mary, what 
a comfort would it have been to Jesus, if she had 
been permitted to vindicate His innocence against 
those who charged Him with crimes against God 
and His nation ! What a relief to bid them be still 
who reviled and blasphemed Him, to wipe away the 
blood and spittle which disfigured His adorable face, 
to stay the arms that dealt Him blows, to lift Him 
tip tenderly when He fell under the weight of the 
cross, to moisten His parched lips when He cried 
out : ''I thirst !'' To speak a comforting word as 
He exclaimed in His dereliction : ''My God, My 
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?'' To hear a sigh 
from His lips or to see a spark of life in His eye as 
she folded His bruised and bleeding body to her 
bosom for the last time ! 

When the one who pities can afford relief, his 
thoughts are diverted from his own feelings and 
centered on the good that he is doing the sufferer. 



Mater Dolorosa. 825 

The agony of agonies is felt when a mother's heart is 
melted with pity as she witnesses the sufferings of a 
well-beloved son, and finds herself powerless to ease 
his pain. Mary's sorrow was embittered by the fact 
that neither her love nor her pity availed to prevent 
or assuage the sufferings of her Son. While her 
love forced her to press near to Jesus, her pity was 
as unavailing to mitigate His sufferings during His 
Passion as it was to resuscitate Him when, lifeless, 
He was laid upon her knee. Thus her presence dur- 
ing the Passion but added to the anguish of Jesus, 
while it deluged her own soul with an ocean of bitter 
regret. 

Why? Because her compassion would not permit 
any mitigation of Jesus' suffering. The words ''pity" 
and ''compassion" are usually taken to signify the 
same thing, are used interchangeably; and when a 
difference is recognized between them it is one of 
degree rather than of kind, compassion being under- 
stood as implying more of tenderness than pity. The 
difference, however, between these words, as they 
are exempHfied in the 'Tieta," is radical, arising 
from the unique position of the Blessed Virgin in the 
plan of Redemption, from her exceptional relation to 
the Passion of Christ. 

The primitive, literal meaning of compassion is to 
suffer with another. In this sense, the apostles and 
disciples of Our Lord were His fellow sufferers as 
well as Mary, though not to the same degree. The 
very following of their Master required them to 
leave all things, to deny themselves, and to drink of 
the chalice of which He would drink; but the 
apostles were without any clear, well-defined idea of 
what Jesus would have to suffer before entering into 
His glory. Mary, however, was not an unconscious 
instrument in the work of Redemption up to the mo- 



826 Mater Dolorosa. 

ment Christ's Passion began, and then its unwilHng 
witness. 

She was not only (Hke the other friends of the 
Saviour, but more fully) a sorrowful witness of the 
scenes which preceded and accompanied the awful 
tragedy of Calvary; she not only fully realized all 
that Jesus suffered, but she foresaw before He was 
conceived in her womb all that He would suffer. So 
much at heart, indeed, had she the object of His suf- 
ferings, that she was constrained out of love for 
sinners and obedience to God to devote Him to those 
sufferings, w^hile. all the affection of her soul in- 
clined her to save Him from them. 

The only thing in history that approaches Mary's 
compassion was the suffering of Abraham when, at 
God's command, he consented to sacrifice his son, 
Isaac. But what did Abraham's contemplated sacri- 
fice of Isaac cost him in comparison with what the 
sacrifice of Jesus cost Mary? What proportion does 
a father's love bear to a mother's? What compari- 
son is there between Isaac and Jesus ? Only that of 
the shadow to the substance, only that of the type to 
the reality. In consenting to the awful sacrifice of 
Jesus on Calvary, Mary simply immolated herself by 
doing a holy violence to the strongest and tenderest 
ties, to feelings that could exist only between the 
Virgin Mother and the God-Man, Jesus Christ. 
Abraham consented to the sacrifice of Isaac during a 
few hours, but Mary daily, momentarily consented 
to it for thirty-three years. Abraham's soul was 
filled for a brief space with bitter sorrow, but Mary's 
during the whole lifetime of Jesus. 

In order to see how immeasurably Mary's suffer- 
ings surpassed those which any other human being 
ever endured, it is necessary to acquire some idea of 
her foreknowledge of Christ's Passion, of her will- 



Mater Dolorosa. 827 

ingness to participate in it, of the heroic, holy pur- ' 
pose that animated her when she devoted Jesus to 
death in the cause of men's salvation. 

Mary's sanctity entitled her to the fullest confi- 
dence of the Deity as to the means by which the 
world's Redemption was to be accomplished. While 
God conceals His counsels from the proud and 
wicked, He confides them to the humble and to the 
innocent. Mary was selected because of her humil- 
ity. She was full of grace ; she had found favor with 
God. Upon no creature has such a eulogy been 
passed as that which God the Father, by the mouth 
of the Archangel Gabriel, pronounced upon Mary. 
No creature was ever admitted to that close and 
marvelous union that existed between Mary and the 
Eternal Father. Living only for God, and in God, it 
may well be believed that secrets were committed to 
her of v/hich priest and prophet were kept in igno- 
rance ; just as Jesus communicated to John, by reason 
of his virginal sanctity, secrets concerning w^hich the 
other apostles dare not even question their Master. 
It may well be believed that Mary knew more than 
the prophets of old, upon whose vivid portrayals of 
the sufferings of the Messias she had often medi- 
tated ; that she knew more than Joseph, who learned 
from the angel that Jesus would "save His people 
from their sins" (and every IsraeHte knew that with- 
out the eft\ision of blood there was no remission of 
sin) ; that she knew more than Simeon, whose vision 
of the Passion enabled him, in those forcible, ex- 
pressive words, to liken Mary's sympathy with Jesus 
in His sufferings to a sword of sorrow that would 
pierce her soul. 

While the apostles were often, during the lifetime 
of their Master, rebuked for their slowness to be- 
lieve, their failure to understand, never once was 



828 Mater Dolorosa. 

Mary's faith or understanding rebuked. On the 
contrary, she is represented as keeping the divine 
counsels, pondering them in her heart. While the 
apostles, when they spoke of Christ, before the de- 
scent of the Holy Ghost, often exhibited the densest 
ignorance of His true character, and the most er- 
roneous notions of His purpose in coming into the 
world ; while even after the Resurrection they 
asked : ''Wilt Thou at this time restore the king- 
dom of Israel?'' Mary, on the other hand, showed 
in the Magnificat, and at Cana, the fullest apprecia- 
tion of His divine. character, and of His coming. No 
Doctor of the Church, with all the advantages which 
the complete history of Christ afforded him, has 
been able to formulate more correct ideas of Jesus 
than those clearly implied in the words Mary spoke 
concerning Him. 

The extent of Mary's knowledge is not a mere 
matter of speculation. It is a matter of fact that, be- 
fore the Incarnation, she was the only daughter of 
Israel that entertained a correct notion of the charac- 
ter of the Messias. The other women of Judea re- 
garded the coming Messias as a great temporal 
prince. Hence, as the time of His coming ap- 
proached, a consuming desire to be the mother of 
the Messias burned in the breast of every Jewish 
woman. With this object in view, the maid sought 
marriage, the wife prayed for fruitfulness, and im- 
plored the Lord to save her from sterility as from a 
curse. No such ambition, however, was cherished 
by Mary. On the contrary, by a vow of virginity, 
she had made her mothership of the Messias, hu- 
manly speaking, impossible. She had such a true 
conception of that exalted dignity that she deemed 
perpetual continence and a life of sanctification in the 
temple necessary to prepare herself, not for the 



Mater Dolorosa. 829 

mothership of the Messias, but to become the hand- 
maid, the servant of the woman God would deem 
worthy of so high an honor. In this, what testimony 
does not Mary bear to that incomparable dignity to 
which God, regarding her humility, exalted her ! No 
less an authority than Cardinal Newman interprets 
Mary's reply to the angel: ''Behold the handmaid 
of the Lord," as signifying that Mary simply aspired 
to become the servant of the mother of the Messias. 

If Mary entertained such correct ideas of the Mes- 
sias before the angel's visit, what fulness of knowl- 
edge must she not have received through Gabriel's 
message and his answers to her questions ! Her 
dialogue with the Archangel shows plainly that she 
was not selected as a mere instrument, but as a 
free, intelligent agent; that she was free to refuse 
to become the Mother of the Messias, and that she 
consented only after having attained to a clear un- 
derstanding of what would be required of her. 

''She was troubled," the Gospel says, at the 
angel's words, and asked in her own mind the mean- 
ing of his salutation. The angel having allayed her 
fears, Mary asks plainly : "How shall this be done, 
for I know not man ?" Mary did not blindly consent, 
like the apostles, to participate in the work of the 
Messias, and like them fail in her part when it came 
to drink of the cup of Christ's bitterness. She con- 
sented only after she had known what sacrifice that 
consent would demand of her, and therefore, she 
never afterwards shrank from what was laid upon 
her : "Be it done unto me according to thy word." 

It is clear that Mary could have absolutely refused 
to become the Mother of the Messias ; nevertheless, 
her acceptance was so deliberate, was given with 
such full knowledge of the sufferings it involved, 
and with such willing obedience to the counsels of 



830 Mater Dolorosa, 

God ; and consequently, was so meritorious, that the 
Holy Ghost, by the mouth of Elizabeth, declared 
Mary blessed for having consented : ''Blessed art 
thou that hast believed, because those things shall be 
accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord" 
(Luke i. 45). 

If, at the time of the Annunciation, Mary did not 
know the sorrows she would have to endure in con- 
sequence of her consent, why should she be called 
blessed for having believed? Why, as the Gospel 
says, was she troubled? Why should she not have 
gladly and promptly accepted the honor, so much 
coveted by the other women of her day? Why 
should she not have been profoundly grateful for the 
honor if the sword or sorrow it contained was con- 
cealed from her? Mary was blessed in her belief, 
singularly and especially blessed, because she made 
the voluntary sacrifice of her maternal affections in 
offering her Son as a Victim of propitiation for the 
sins of the world. Mary was superlatively blessed 
among all the friends of God ; she was also troubled 
in this, that she consented to become a mother in or- 
der that her Son might suffer a cruel death to re- 
deem the world. In this consisted Mary's coopera- 
tion in the work of Redemption. She knowingly, 
willingly, in obedience to the Eternal Father, con- 
sented to supply from the fountain of her life-blood 
the Victim, the Lamb that taketh away the sins of 
the world. 

Let those who would form some idea of her com- 
passion look at Mary, from the moment of the In- 
carnation, standing in spirit as truly under the 
shadow of the cross as when she actually stood by 
the cross of Jesus on Mount Calvary. During that 
more than thirty years of martyrdom, her knowledge 
of Jesus' sufferings did not increase, but her realiza- 



Mater Dolorosa. 831 

tion of them became more and more vivid and pain- 
ful in proportion as she saw Jesus increase in age, in 
wisdom, and in grace, until she saw Him offered a 
bleeding, dying Victim on the tree. Every time she 
saw Jesus, every time she heard Him, every time 
she thought of Him, she was compelled in spirit to 
offer Him as a propitiation for the sins of the world. 

''Every look of Jesus,'' says Father Faber, ''drove 
the sword deeper into Mary's soul. Every sound of 
His voice, while it lifted her on the wings of ma- 
ternal transport, brought with it its own bitterness, 
which pierced all the keener and deeper for the joy 
that had gone with it. Every action of His came 
with a multitude of pains, in which past and present 
blended in one terrible prevision, which was ever 
present to her blessed soul. The very sight of Jesus 
was her torture; Jesus, the joy of the martyrs, was 
the executioner of His Mother." 

Mary's sorrows are, in one respect, like the attri- 
butes of God. Theologians tell us that in God there 
is no distinction betw^een love and anger, between 
justice and mercy; that these are only forms of His 
infinite goodness which to men seem at one time 
love, at another anger; at one time, justice, at an- 
other, mercy; just as the sun, though fixed in the 
heavens and at all times giving forth the same light 
and heat, seems to . occupy different positions at 
morning, noon, and evening, to be hotter in summer 
than in winter. So the sorrows of Mary seem distinct 
in character, time, and effects, because of the differ- 
ent circumstances under which they have been mani- 
fested to us ; whereas, in Mary, they constitute but 
one and the same sea of bitter woe. 

Men may contemplate each incident in Christ's 
life as separate and distinct in itself from other in- 
cidents. They may meditate on the Joyful or Glori- 



832 Mater Dolorosa. 

ous Mysteries without for a moment considering the 
Sorrowful Mysteries. They may even sympathize 
with Christ in His cruelest tortures, and thereby fill 
their souls with peace (through the compunction 
thus excited for their sins) ; fill them with hope of 
salvation, as well as admiration for the infinite love 
of Jesus for sinners. 

This method of meditation has led men to regard 
each mystery of the Passion as distinct and discon- 
nected from the other mysteries. Many have thus 
erroneously fancied that Mary's attention, like theirs, 
was fixed only on one event or mystery of the Pas- 
sion at a time ; that each suffering of Christ involved 
her in a grief peculiarly its own, and bore no relation 
to that of the mystery that either preceded or fol- 
lowed it. 

How different was it with Mary ! To her Christ's 
whole life was more than an open book. She saw it 
all uninterruptedly from Nazareth to Calvary, from 
the manger to the tomb. For her there were no Joy- 
ful Mysteries, followed for a brief period by the Sor- 
rowful. No ; from the words spoken by the angel of 
the Annunciation to the words spoken by the angel 
of the Resurrection, all were for her Sorrowful 
Mysteries. 

Mary always saw the end. ^'The sword of Sime- 
on's prophecy was the crucifixion. Everything in 
the life of Jesus reminded her of the death He was to 
die, and therefore required her to consent to the 
sacrifice of her Son anew.'' Father Faber says : 
''Postures and attitudes in which she saw her be- 
loved Son had some startling likeness in them to 
something which was to occur in the Passion. When 
a carpenter's tool pressed against the palm of His 
hand, she saw the wound of the nail there. The 
white brow of boyhood often seemed as if it had a 



.Mater Dolorosa. 833 

coronal of rosy spots around where the thorns 
should be." 

There is a painting which has suggested this ser- 
mon, and that may be called ''The Shadow of the 
Cross." It represents a scene in the workshop of 
Nazareth. Joseph is employed at the carpenter's 
bench, Mary sits plying the distaff. A bright sum- 
mer's day pours a flood of light into the room. Jesus, 
a beautiful youth, with filial piety informing every 
feature, advances with outstretched arms towards 
His Mother to embrace her, and to imprint a kiss 
upon her cheek. O ! what would this scene have been 
to Mary, with what joy would it have dilated her 
soul, if only the future had been concealed from her ! 
But, alas ! looking at Jesus, the Mother's joy is 
turned into grief, because she sees that the loving 
attitude of her Son casts the shadow of the cross on 
the opposite wall. 

What more touching, entrancing, than the scene 
enacted at Bethlehem ! The winter winds were joy- 
ful with the music of the multitude of the heavenly 
host, praising God and singing ''Glory to God in the 
.highest, and peace on earth to men of good will;" 
the dismal cave was lighted up with the glory of 
heaven ; angels, and wondering, adoring shepherds 
came to worship the new-born Saviour; and Mary 
and Joseph lovingly, adoringly, contemplated the 
heavenly Babe. Had that scene, which has filled the 
earth for centuries with light and gladness, no joy 
for Mary ? Did not its splendor, for the time being, 
dispel the shadow of the cross? Did not Mary, in 
the words of Holy Scripture, rejoice "Because a man 
was born into the world," and, for the moment, turn 
the eye of her soul from the vision of Calvary ? 

Alas! no. The joyous light of the Nativity only 
projected the shadow of the cross more distinctly 



834 Mater Dolorosa. 

Upon Bethlehem. The scene in the stable, it is true, 
touched Mary's soul, caused rivers of love to well out 
of her heart, but only that the thought of Calvary 
might instantly change them into an ocean of bit- 
terness. As Mary laid the divine Infant in the man- 
ger, as she saw His little arms stretched out as if to 
embrace her, she thought of the time that same Jesus 
would be laid upon the cross, and nailed to it, when 
His arms would be stretched out in crudest torture, 
in infinite love, to embrace the whole human race. 
As she listened to the song of the angels, she 
thought of the blasphemies with which men would 
demand His death ; as she looked on the reverent 
shepherds, she thought of the wild beasts that 
would cry for His blood ; as she looked on the glory 
of heaven lighting the first opening of His eyes, she 
thought of the darkness that would fall upon their 
closing. As she saw earth and heaven rejoicing 
over His birth, she thought of how man and God 
would forsake Him at death ; as she clasped Him to 
her bosom, she thought of the time when He would 
be laid at last, as you see Him in this group of 
statuary, all bleeding and bruised, wounded and 
lifeless, on her breast. Thus, even at Bethlehem, 
Mary stood in the shadow of the cross; and there, 
amid all the joy of that scene, was compelled to con- 
secrate the winsome Infant to the death of Calvary. 
''The Passion,'' says Father Faber, ''became an in- 
evitable vision to her. She could not look away. 
Everything about it was commuted into bitterness. 
The process went on when the sun was shining 
brightest, and the Mother's heart expanded to its 
light and heat. She belonged to sorrow. It had 
drawn her life under its dark waters. Her life wa^ 
hidden in the Heart of Jesus, amid gloomy forms, 
appalling shadows, dread insights into horrible gulfs 



Mater Dolorosa, 835 

of sin, thunders and lightnings of divine wrath, 
frenzies of lawless demons, excesses of human 
cruelty, and a very living show of the instruments of 
the Passion. Every action of Jesus became a suffer- 
ing, every source of joy a fountain of bitterness, 
every look at Jesus, every movement that He made, 
every word that He uttered, all stirred and diffused 
the bitterness that was in her. The very lapse of 
time itself was bitterness, for she saw Gethsemane 
and Calvary coming down the stream toward her." 

And if this was Mary's cruel portion during the 
Joyful Mysteries, who can imagine what m.ust have 
been the bitterness of her grief during those cruel 
scenes that followed, where every torture of Jesus, 
like a sword, actually pierced her soul ! 

It was during the Sorrow^ful Mysteries that the 
shadow of the cross constantly deepened, that the 
sufferings of Mary grew more intense, until the 
shadow became the dread reality ; until Mary ac- 
tually stood by the cross to which Jesus was nailed ; 
until the sight of the Son's sufferings immolated the 
Mother a living victim on the altar of the world's sal- 
vation. 

Hitherto the stripes, thorns, nails, lance, had been 
invisible, had had their existence only in the mind. 

Now thev are awful realities that afflict body and 

•> •' 

soul. ''Sense," says Father Faber, ''is more than 
prevision, something far different from it. The 
senses interrupt that interior tranquillity in which the 
darkest visions may possess the soul without disturb- 
ing it. The senses have special things of their own 
in sights, sounds, and touches of grief ; they pierce 
the flesh, causing it to tremble with chilly pains, tor- 
turing the nerves, freezing and firing the blood by 
turns, stabbing the brain like daggers, and bruising 
the convulsed heart as if it were with a vise of iron. 



836 Mater Dolorosa. 

It was the eye-witnessing of the Passion which made 
Mary's martyrdom to be in her body as well as in her 
soul, because it made every pulse a beating instru- 
ment of pain. What a fearful thing for a mother, 
particularly one of such exquisite sensibilities and 
profound love as Mary, to have to follow her only 
Child through every step of that bloody drama !" She 
could pity Him, could wish to save Him ; but, like 
Him, she yielded to the eternal decree, saying: ''Not 
my will, but Thine be done !" 

Considering the intensity, bitterness, and duration 
of her sufferings in soul and body, the question 
arises: Could mortal have made greater sacrifices, 
or have suffered more in behalf of any cause, than 
Mary made and suffered by consenting to give her 
Son for the salvation of men? What did patriarch, 
or prophet, or apostle do for the salvation of men in 
comparison with what Mary suffered for it? If 
those who, at Christ's invitation, abandoned their 
nets and boats to follow Him, shall hereafter sit on 
thrones and judge the world, what must be Mary's 
place in the kingdom of God, since she, in obedience 
to the divine will (to appropriate the words of St. 
Paul), ''spared not her own Son, but delivered Him 
up for us all" ? 

Let the redeemed learn, then, what they owe to 
Mary. Let them think of her more than thirty years' 
martyrdom, in consequence of her m.aternal instincts 
leading her to desire that the chalice of suffering 
might pass from her divine Son, while her obedience 
to the divine counsels and her devotion to man's sal- 
vation, doing a holy violence to her love, forced her 
to say : "Let the will of the Father be done ; let my 
Son suffer death to redeem His people from their 
sins!" 

Let them look often and thoughtfully upon the 



Mater Dolorosa. 837 

scene on Mount Calvary! Let them meditate on 
Mary's holy heroism. Let them think of her as a 
woman weak in her sex, as a mother wounded in her 
tenderest affections; as sorrowful unto death, yet 
tearless; unwavering in her purpose to fulfill the 
promise made to God through Gabriel ; willing to 
drain the chalice of her affliction ; calm, when it came 
to making the sacrifice required for the redemption 
of the world; resolved to witness the end, to see 
Jesus blot out the handwriting against sinners with 
the most precious blood He had drawn from the 
fountains of her heart; to stand by the cross until 
she he^ivd : "Consummatum est/' ''It is finished;" 
until she saw her Son become the Saviour of the 
world, and the children of wrath become the 
children of God; until Jesus' lifeless body enfolded 
to her breast left her, amid the shadows of Calvary, 
in a desolation so unutterable that earth has no 
name for its anguish. 

Let Christians look upon Mary crowned by Jesus 
on Calvary, in the words of Isaias, ''with the crown 
of tribulation,'' and then they will understand why 
Mary takes an interest in their spiritual welfare; 
why she jealously guards the affair of their salva- 
tion in life; why she bends all her energies at the 
hour of death to protect souls from the assault of 
the demon. Then they will understand why that 
unfailing devotion to the cause of the world's Re- 
demption which Mary displayed from Nazareth to 
Calvary she now exhibits in behalf of each and 
every one of the redeemed : to the end that the pre- 
cious blood of Jesus shall not have been shed for any 
soul in vain. 

The object of the "Pieta," then, is to promote de- 
votion to the Passion of Christ, and to the sorrow 
of His blessed Mother. Happily for you who will 



838 Mater Dolorosa. 

pray before it, the love excited at it will not, like 
Mary's love for Jesus, fill your souls with sadness, 
but rather fill them with ''that peace which sur- 
passeth all understanding," because at this shrine 
you will conceive a lasting hatred of sin, the sole 
cause of Jesus' suffering and Mary's sorrow. 

The pity born of the contemplation of this group 
will not be, like Mary's, powerless to mitigate or to 
prevent the injuries inflicted on the Saviour, but 
rather it will enable you to relieve Him in the person 
of all earth's afflicted — to give drink to the thirsty, 
food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, instruc- 
tion to the ignorant — of whom Christ says : *'As 
often as you did it to one of these. My least 
brethren, you did it unto Me." It will enable you to 
prevent these sins which found expression in the in- 
juries inflicted during the Passion on Christ, and by 
which, St. Paul says, men now ''crucify the Son of 
God anew and make a mockery of Him." 

The desire to suffer with and for Christ with 
which the "Pieta" will fire your souls will not,, like 
Mary's compassion, add to the anguish of your suf- 
fering Lord by making Him the witness of His fol- 
lowers' pain, but rather will make Jesus and Mary 
and the angels of heaven rejoice over the innocence 
preserved, the conversions wrought, the temptations 
overcome, the virtues cultivated, the souls saved 
through your zeal and labors and sufferings in 
furthering the kingdom of God on earth.* 

*A sermon by the Very Rev. D. I. McDermott, 
D.D., rector of St. Mary's, Philadelphia. (The introduc- 
tory sentence has been slightly changed.) 



CHAPTER LXXVI. 

Oxxv XaDi2'6 Dai2. 
SaturTra^ ©etiicatetr to tt)e JJmmaculate ^^onception. 

I SHALL not pause to treat in detail of the num- 
bers of Religious Congregations, sodalities, 
confraternities, etc., that have been instituted in 
modern times, and more especially since the dog- 
matic definition of the Immaculate Conception. Nor 
shall I refer to the very large number of devotions 
that have been introduced into the Church, and ap- 
proved and indulgenced by its Supreme Pontiflf. 
And as regards churches and religious and educa- 
tional institutions of every kind, the whole v/orld, 
even to its remotest parts, is dotted with them, from 
the stately cathedral to the humble country church 
— and nowhere more so than in America. But it 
v/ill be both interesting and instructive to dwell 
briefly on the manner in which Saturday came to be 
dedicated to the holy Mother of God; and later to 
the Immaculate Conception. 

It would be impossible to determine with cer- 
tainty when Saturday first became especially Mary's 
day; but it is worthy of remark that it was first 
sacred to the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin, because 
on that day she was filled with bitterest anguish of 
soul on account of her divine Son being then cold in 
death in the holy sepulcher. For this reason Pope 
Innocent I., about the year 417, decreed that Satur- 
day should be observed as a day of abstinence in 
honor of Mary's sorrows ; but in doing so he doubt- 
less only gave the sanction of his supreme authority 



840 Our Lady's Day. 

to what had existed, at least in places, long before. 
Some writers have found an argument in favor of 
the dedication of Saturday to the Blessed Virgin as 
early as the eighth century, from the fact that the 
votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin is assigned by 
Alcuin to that day. But on referring to the original 
documents, it is found, as Father Bridgett remarks, 
that this argument is not conclusive; for Alcuin 
merely says that 'Ve have added a Mass of the holy 
Mother of God for certain days, which, if any one 
sees fit, he may sing.'' But it is beyond question 
that as early as the eleventh century Saturday was 
considered as peculiarly dedicated to the Mother of 
God. ''A beautiful custom,'' says St. Peter Damian, 
''has grown up in some churches, that on every Sat- 
urday in Mary's honor Mass is celebrated, unless 
some feast or ferial in Lent prevent it." St. Peter 
greatly promoted this devotion as well as the recita- 
tion of the Little Office, and the fast of Saturday. 
Pope Urban IL, in the Council of Clermont in 
1096, made the Office of the Blessed Virgin on Sat- 
urday of obligation. The same Pope introduced the 
Preface of the Blessed Virgin into the missal. 

A Scotch writer of the fourteenth century, either 
Fordun, or his continuator Bower, says : 'Tn the 
days of our fathers the Sabbath (Saturday) was 
held in great veneration, in honor of the Blessed 
Virgin, principally by the devotion of women, who 
every Saturday, with great piety, restricted them- 
selves to one meal, and that merely of bread and 
water." He tells how the Sovereign Pontiff set 
apart the whole Office of Saturday to Our Lady; 
and he continues : ''Therefore the faithful on this 
day, inflamed with zeal for Mary, to please her Son, 
keep a solemn Office to His most glorious Mother. 
They sing also her solemn Mass with the 



Our Lady's Day. 841 

Gloria in excelsis. Let each of us, therefore, see 
whether he has the affection of a good son toward 
this Mother, rejoicing more in her honor than in his 
own, and feehng her dishonor more than his own 
shame. But if a sinner can thus love Mary, how 
much more does her innocent Son Jesus, the God of 
charity ! In this confidence many churches, as they 
can not set apart all the days to her, have chosen at 
least one day in each week." He then complains 
that the old customs are no longer strictly observed. 
''Prelates," he says, ''are very culpable in allowing 
the people to vary the days of fasting in honor of 
Mary, since Saturday is dedicated to her. But now 
you will find both men and women take good suf)- 
pers, even eating eggs on Saturday, who on Tues- 
day or Thursday would not touch a crust of bread, 
lest they should break Our Lady's fast. . . . O 
self-will, enemy of the soul, opposed to God and 
pleasing to the devil !" It may be remarked, how- 
ever, that the English, who were noted before the 
Reformation for their devotion to the Blessed Vir- 
gin, centered it principally in her joys (Father 
Bridgett). St. Louis, king of France, made it a 
constant practice to wash the feet of several poor 
persons every Saturday in Mary's honor ; and after- 
ward wait on them at table. He also made provi- 
sion for Masses to be celebrated on every Saturday 
in the year in the church of Our Lady of Chartres, 
and desired, as far as the rubrics would permit, that 
they should be votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin. 
What was true of the countries mentioned was true 
almost universally of every country of Europe and 
the East in the ages of faith. 

As time wore on, and by a secret dispensation of 
Providence the devotion of Catholics to the Blessed 
Virgin began to center more and more on the Im- 



842 Our Lady's Day. 

maculate Conception, it soon came to usurp the 
place of the others that had been fixed on Saturday ; 
so that, in the last two or three centuries, if not be- 
fore that time, the last day of the week has come to 
be by excellence the day of the Imm.aculate Concep- 
tion. Throughout the United States and many 
other countries the Office and Mass of the Immacu- 
late Conception are of obligation on Saturday, 
when the feast of a saint or a privileged ferial or oc- 
tave day does not fall upon it. This arrangement is 
destined doubtless to continue, and even to spread, 
as devotion to the Immaculate Conception is now 
fast becoming the leading devotion of Catholics, at 
least in English-speaking countries and in the New 
World.* 

*From Father Lambing's The Immaculate Conception, 
(The Blessed Virgin, under the title of the Immaculate 
Conception, was chosen as the Patroness of the United 
States in 1846. The solemn definition of the dogma of the 
Immaculate Conception by Pope Piux IX. occurred on 
Dec. 8, 1854.) 



CHAPTER LXXVII. 
XLbc JSleseeD Sacrament anD St Joaepb. 

>/||'e wish to make you understand three things: 
^^^^^ the first, that, in a certain sense, we owe to 
St. Joseph the Wheat of the elect, w^hich is offered 
to us ; the second, that, participating therein, our 
happiness equals, yea, even surpasses, in some 
degree, that of St. Joseph himself; thirdly, and 
lastly, that his example teaches us how we ought to 
prepare to receive it well and to profit by it. 

The glorious Patriarch, St. Joseph, was no 
stranger to the Eucharistic mystery. We possess in 
our tabernacles, we offer on our altars, we receive 
at the holy table, the body born of the Mrgin Mary, 
as the Church sings : ''Ave veritm Corpus, natiim 
de Maria Virgine." This sacred body was con- 
ceived by the operation of the Holy Ghost, it is true ; 
but it was formed in the chaste womb, and from the 
very substance of a tender virgin w^ho could not dis- 
pose of herself, since she had made choice of a 
spouse; and by that title St. Joseph already had 
over the Infant Jesus a certain right. 

Let us hear how^ the blessed Bishop of Geneva 
speaks upon this point : *Tf a dove," says he, "car- 
ries in its beak a date, and lets it fall in a garden 
where it takes root, to whom will the tree belong 
that will spring from it, but to the owner of the 
garden? The owner of the ground is naturally the 
owner of the fruit it produces : ^Res fructificat 
domino/ 

''Now, the Holy Spirit, the sweet Dove of the 
Jordan, let fall this immortal Date of the uncreated 



844 The Blessed Sacrament and St. Joseph, 

Word into the bosom of Mary, who is compared by 
Him to a garden enclosed, 'hortus conchisiis, soror 
mea sponsa, hortiis conchisus/ And there the Just 
'par excellence' took root, there developed, there in- 
creased like a beautiful palm-tree, 'jusUis ut palma 
florebitf 

"But the Blessed Virgin belonged to St. Joseph 
as the spouse belongs to her spouse; the blessed 
Fruit of her womb, therefore, belonged also to him, 
because 'quod nascitur in agro meo, meum est' say 
the jurists. It was the same with his foster-son. He 
was a golden ear of corn come into his field, a bunch 
of purple grapes produced from the branches of a 
vine belonging to him ; to him, then, belonged also 
the Wheat of the elect and the Wine that ger- 
minates virgins.'' 

Still more, St. Joseph was the guardian of the 
Son of God. He watched over his ward with care, 
and he shielded Him from persecution at t4ie peril 
of his own life. Scarcely was Jesus born than cruel 
Herod sought to put Him to death. The murderous 
scythe of the jealous tyrant was raised to cut down 
in the blade the mysterious Wheat that germinated 
in the womb of Mary as in a virgin soil. Arise, 
Joseph, take the Child and His Mother, and provide 
for His safety by flight. Watch over Him, pre- 
serve Him from harm, for He is our only hope. He 
will one day feed the whole world with His own 
substance. It was Joseph who saved from being 
cut down by the storm of persecution that growing 
ear of wheat, which gave us the sacred Bread that 
nourishes to eternal life. 

It was in Egypt that, during the seven years of 
plenty, the ancient Joseph stored up in granaries the 
wheat which was to feed the subjects of Pharao and 
the house of Jacob during the seven years' famine. 



The Blessed Sacrament and St. Joseph. 845 

It was first in Egypt and then at Nazareth that the 
new Joseph concealed for a long time Him who, on 
the eve of His death, opened His tabernacles and 
said to both Jew and Gentile : ''Take and eat, this 
is My body ; take and drink, this is My blood. My 
flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed/' 

Our Joseph, with more right than the viceroy of 
the Nile, may be called the provider of the world ; 
and in these days of sterility, after nineteen cen- 
turies, we are still living on the wheat laid up and 
kept in reserve in those abundant granaries which 
we call the holy tabernacles. 

Is there anything else to be said on this first 
point? Yes, my brethren. If St. Joseph had no 
part in the formation of the sacred body of Jesus, it 
was not so with regard to its increase and develop- 
ment. If he gave it not being, he supported it at 
his own expense. He was, says St. Bernard, ''carnis 
Slice nutritium/' His foster-father; and he gained 
by assiduous labor life for Him by whom all things 
live and have their being. It was his sweat, it was, 
alas ! very often his tears, that nourished the In- 
fant of Nazareth in such a way that, with Santeuil, 
we can say of the adorable humanity of the Saviour : 
"Et formata Dei sine te, de tiiis crescitnt membra 
lahorihusf' 

We can understand, also, that our great saint is 
meant to play a part in the sacred mystery which 
the Church presents to us. It was the bread gained 
by him that formed, or, at least, increased, the blood 
shed on Calvary, and which we receive at the altar. 
It is this bread become the flesh of the Son of 
man that gives us life. 

The sacred Host comes to us sweetened with the 
thought of the guardianship which St. Joseph exer- 
cised over it; and with the divine blood the chalice 



846 The Blessed Sacrament and St. Joseph. 

brings us sacred memories of the sufferings and 
trials of the carpenter of Nazareth. 

Is not this the sense and even the expression of 
this passage of the decree that we now quote ?* Does 
it not say : "Solertissime emitrivit quern populus 
ft delis viti panem de caelo descensiim sumeret ad vi- 
tarn ceternam consequendam" ? ''He nourished with 
greatest soHcitude Him whom the faithful were one 
day to receive as the Bread of life, which was to 
sustain them on their heavenward journey/* 

Divine Master, do we not remember that in Thy 
Eucharist, which is the merciful continuation of 
Thy incarnation, Thou art still the Son of Mary and 
Joseph, and that Thou hast for Thy father and Thy 
mother a Heart most devoted, most filial, and most 
loving? 

' If St. Joseph refused Thee nothing, and wept 
that, having given all he had, he could give no more, 
what canst Thou refuse him, oh, Jesus, since now all 
is Thine, and it is Thine to give in return ? 

*The Decree of Pius IX., declaring St. Joseph patron of 
the universal Church, and raising his feast to the first class. 



CHAPTER LXXVIIL 

©n Devotion to St. Sosepb, tbe Spouee ot tbe 
/nboet JSleseeD Dirgin. 

IT is giving to the Blessed Virgin a testimony of 
love which is dear and precious to her when we 
take her holy husband Joseph as the primary object 
of our devotion after that which attaches and conse- 
crates us to her service. 

In what esteem ought we not to hold such a 
saint, a man chosen by God to be the guardian of 
the infancy of His Word made flesh ; to be the 
witness and the protector of the virginity of His 
Mother! 

He watched over the true tabernacle of Israel ; he 
transported from one place to another, according to 
seasons and circumstances, the ark of the new al- 
liance ; he held in his keeping the price of the salva- 
tion and the redemption of men. What glory to 
have had in this life a legitimate authority over the 
Queen of heaven and earth, even over ''the King of 
ages, alone immortal, to whom belongs all glory!'' 
In order to form an idea of his eminent merit, we 
have only to remember that he is the husband of 
J^Iary : the virtues of the one enable us to appreciate 
the virtues of the other. God gave to Mary a hus- 
band worthy of her. But, above all, remember that 
Jesus reposed a thousand times upon his breast. 
What holy, celestial feelings must not the Child-God 
have imparted to his heart! Joseph lived with Him 
w^ho is the source of all graces, and with her who is, 
as it w^ere, the channel for distributing them : how 
many spiritual riches did he not receive from them I 



848 On Devotion to St. Joseph. 

Patience, gentleness, love of our neighbor, love of 
God, all kinds of virtues shone in him, and were 
carried to the most sublime heights. 

Christian soul, that desirest to give thyself up to 
the exercises of a devout and interior life, have re- 
course, in order to obtain the grace of them, to the 
intercession of a saint who practiced them in so per- 
fect a manner. The Church has erected to God 
temples in his honor ; she has instituted feasts in his 
honor; she invites her children, by means of devo- 
tions which she has authorized, to look upon him as 
one of the most powerful protectors they have in 
heaven. 

The name of Joseph is, in fact, specially invoked 
by all the faithful ; they frequently unite it with the 
name of the sacred persons to whom he was so 
closely united — Jesus and Mary. Well known is the 
indulgenced prayer, ''J^sus, Mary, and Joseph, I 
give you my heart and my soul.'' If, at the time 
when Jesus and Mary lived at Nazareth, we had 
wished to obtain a grace, what more powerful medi- 
ator among men could we have employed than St. 
Joseph? Will he now have less credit with them? 

"Go, then, to Joseph!" (Gen. xH. 55). Go to St. 
Joseph, that he may intercede for you. Whatever 
may be the grace you desire, God will grant his re- 
quest. More than this, in whatever condition you 
may be, whatever may be your state of life, that very 
state and condition will provide you with a special 
motive of confidence in him. The rich ought to re- 
member, while praying to him, that he is the de- 
scendant of patriarchs and of kings. 

Let the poor remember that he did not disdain 
their obscurity ; that, like them, he lived in poverty, 
that he labored all his life as an artisan. 

The virgins, that he kept the most perfect virgin- 



On Devotion to St. Joseph. 849 

ity; and married persons, that he was the head of 
the most august family that ever existed. 

Children, that he was the foster-father of Jesus, 
the guardian of His childhood. 

Priests, that he had so often the happiness of 
carrying Jesus in his arms, that he even offered to 
the Eternal Father the first-fruits of the blood of 
Jesus on the day of His circumcision. 

Religious, that he sanctified his solitude at Naza- 
reth by avoiding all unnecessary contact with the 
world, by the most intimate union with Jesus and 
Mary and by the faithful discharge of every duty. 

Lastly, pious and fervent souls, that never was 
there a heart, after the heart of Mary, that loved 
Jesus with greater ardor and tenderness. 

But, above all, go to Joseph to obtain the grace of 
a good death. The common opinion that he died in 
the arms of Jesus and Mary has given cause for the 
great confidence which the faithful have, that, 
through his intercession, they will enjoy as happy 
and as consoling an end. It may, in fact, be re- 
marked that it is particularly at the hour of death 
that we reap the fruits of the devotion we had dur- 
ing life to this great saint.* 

Father Lings writes in his Little Manual of St. 
Joseph: 'To the world, puffed up with pride in her 
science and culture, she gives as model, Joseph, 
whose faith is simple and childlike; who believed, 
without one thought or doubt, the most profound 
mysteries of our religion ; the first after Mary to 
adore his God and Saviour ; the first witness of His 
weakness as a little child, whose whole heart was 
filled with a deep love and reverence for his Creator. 

''To the world, accustomed to judge by appear- 
ances, the Church offers as a treasure of sanctity 

*From The Imitation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. 



850 On Devotion to St. Joseph. 

and virtue this humble man, who worked in the 
greatest retirement, thinking only of pleasing his 
God. Simple, obedient, chaste, and laborious, he is 
called a just man in the Gospel, and the Church, 
wishing to show how highly she values his virtues, 
proclaims him the guardian of her interests, and does 
all she can to inspire her children with a truly heart- 
felt devotion to this holy patriarch. 

'The manner in which the Church has exalted the 
name of Joseph shows how very dear the devotion 
to this great saint is to her, and how many are the 
advantages and graces to be reaped from it by us, 
her children. If we love the Church Joseph will 
find an especial place in our affections, he will be 
the model of our lives, our help in difficulties, and 
our comfort in sorrow. We may never be afraid of 
paying too much honor and respect to him whom 
Jesus obeyed as a child obeys his father. 
. *'A great many Bishops, with the Holy Father at 
their head, have proclaimed in a most solemn man- 
ner their approbation of the devotion to St. Joseph, 
and how excellent it is to place ourselves under his 
special protection, in this age of pride, sensuality, 
and cupidity. 

"Pope Pius IX. was but a short time raised to the 
throne of St. Peter, when he ordained that through- 
out the whole Catholic world the feast of the Pat- 
ronage of St. Joseph should be celebrated on the 
third Sunday after Easter, so that those w^ho were 
prevented, by their occupations, from honoring our 
holy patron on March 19th, which is the principal 
feast dedicated to his name, might be able to invoke 
his assistance and study his virtues on this day con- 
secrated to the worship of God. 

''Let us contemplate St. Joseph in his hidden life 
at Nazareth, and resolve to become more and more 



On Devotion to St. Joseph. 851 

devout toward him. Seeing him so holy, we will 
understand how right it is that we should try to fol- 
low his footsteps and imitate his virtues. When we 
see him so great we will feel moved to implore his 
powerful intercession with Almighty God, and the 
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, 
will come down upon us, and the testimony of a 
good conscience will illuminate our souls with rays 
of holy joy.'' 

An indulgence of three hundred days is attached 
to the following invocation : 

**Help us, Joseph, in our earthly strife, 
E'er to lead a pure and blameless life." 

The most holy and enlightened Catholic writers 
have testified to the advantages of devotion to St. 
Joseph. We might cite such glorious clients of the 
humble patriarch as St. Bernard, St. Teresa, St. 
Bernardine of Siena, St. Francis de Sales, Gerson, 
Suarez, and many others. But we will confine our- 
selves to a few short extracts from writers of our 
own time. 

Father Dalgairns, of the London Oratory of St. 
Philip Neri, writes thus in his book on the Devotion 
to the Heart of Jesus: 

'Tt can not be denied that in the first ages of the 
Church there appears a greater devotion to St. John 
the Baptist than to St. Joseph ; nowadays the very 
reverse is the fact. Why is this if it be not because 
the worship of the spouse of Mary and the father of 
Jesus is better suited to us than that of the mighty 
saint who was the herald of His coming? There is 
no jealousy in heaven, and the great St. John, the 
very apostle of disinterested love, would willingly 
point to St. Joseph and say, as he did to Our Lord, 
'He must increase, and I must decrease.' The 



852 On Devotion to St. Joseph. 

thought of the sweet saint who guarded Jesus and 
Mary in their weary flight through the wilderness 
was to be more useful to Christians than the remem- 
brance of the stern voice which sounded through the 
desert." 

Father Faber, who devotes to St. Joseph some ex- 
quisite pages in the second book of The Blessed 
Sacrament, says in his work on the ''Precious 
Blood": 

''It is by comparing God's choice of him with the 
office he was to fill, that we come to see the glory 
and the grandeur of St. Joseph, and to contemplate 
with reverent awe the heights of a holiness to which 
such familiarity with God was permitted." 

The same devout writer says elsewhere : 

"This is the immensity of his dignity. The incom- 
municable and ever-blessed paternity is in figure 
communicated to him. He is the foster-father of 
Jesus. To the world without he passes for His 
father. He exercises the authority of a father over 
Him, and performs for Him all the affectionate and 
anxious offices of a father. The unspeakable treas- 
ures of God, Jesus, and Mary, are committed to St. 
Joseph's keeping; and he is himself a treasure as 
well as the treasure-house of God. He is part of the 
scheme of redemption. What wonder theologians 
should tell us such great things of his copious 
graces and his mighty gifts '" 

Let us conclude with these words spoken by Pope 
Pius IX. : 

"I have seen a little picture which represents St. 
Joseph wnth the divine Infant, who points toward 
him', saying : Ite ad Joseph ! To you I say the same. 
Go to Joseph ! Have recourse with special confidence 
to St. Joseph, for his protection is most powerful, as 
he is the patron of the universal Church." 



BppeuDix* 

flbajfms anD Counsels ot Saints anD Spiritual 

mvitcve. 

IF you wish to raise a lofty edifice of perfection, 
take humility for your foundation. — St. 
Thomas Aquinas: Sermon X. 



The first degree of humility is a cheerful and 
ready obedience. — Rule of St. Benedict: Ch. VII. 



A beautiful flower is humility; beautiful is pa- 
tience, obedience, meekness, modesty, and every 
other virtue; but the most beautiful is charity. — 
Blessed Jourdain de Saxe: Letter XXXIII. 



He is most powerful who loves most. — St. 
Gregory the Great: Life of St. Benedict, Ch. 
XXXIII. 



The best of all prayers is that in which we ask 
that God's holy will may be accomplished, both in 
ourselves and in others. — Venerable Louis de Blois, 
O.S.B. 



God regards the motive and not the action. It is 
not the importance of the action that He considers, 
but the excellence of the intention, the love which 
prompted it. — St. Gregory the Great, O.S.B. 



So great is the goodness of God in your regard, 
that, when you ask through ignorance for that 
which is not beneficial, He does not grant your 



854' Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

prayer in this matter, but gives you something bet- 
ter instead. — St. Bernard. O. Cist. 



To love God truly one must have three hearts in 
one : a heart all on fire for God ; a heart full of 
charity for his neighbor; and a heart of flint for 
himself. — Bl. Benedict Joseph Labre. 



Happy is he who, when praised and glorified by 
others, does not regard himself as better than when 
humbled and despised; because a man is only what 
he is in the eyes of God and nothing more. — St. 
Francis of Assisi: Minor Works, Part IV. 



The conquest of a city is of less importance to us 
than a victory gained over ourselves. — St. Gr'egory 
the Great, O.S.B. 



. The most efficacious sermon is a good example. 
Nothing better convinces those spoken to than a 
practical illustration of the counsel given. — St. 
Bernard, O. Cist.: Sermons. 



Let us never voluntarily dwell upon the faults of 
others when they present themselves to our minds; 
instead of dwelling on them let us at once consider 
what there is of good in these persons. . . . 
No one should think or say anything of another 
which he would not wish thought or said of him- 
self. — St. Teresa. 



True perfection consists in a perfect love of God 
and our neighbor; the more perfectly a soul ob- 
serves these two commandments, the more perfect 
does she also become. — St. Teresa: Interior Castle, 
Ch. 11. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints, 855 

When poverty is faithfully observed in a 
monastery, there is no fear that perfection will fall 
to the ground ; for it is poverty which preserves the 
monastic life. ''The walls of poverty are very high 
and very strong/' says St. Clare ; hence she sought 
to shut in and surround monasteries with the walls 
of poverty and humility. — St. Teresa: Way of Per- 
fection. 



Above all things we should care for the sick, 
serving them as if they were Christ in person, be- 
cause He has said : * 'T was sick and you visited 
Me. As long as you did it to one of these, My least 
brethren, you did it to Me.'' — Rule of St. Benedict: 
Ch. XXXVI. 



Let all thy care be to possess thy soul in peace 
and tranquillity. Let no accident be to thee a cause 
®f ill humor. — St. Vincent Ferrer: Spiritual 
Treatise. 



It is only the devil and his followers who ought 
to be sad; we, on the contrary, should always re- 
joice in the Lord. — St. Francis Assisi: Monastic 
Conference, II. 



If thou art wise, expect to die every day ; thus 
thou shalt keep thyself always ready and happy to 
depart on the great journey to thy eternal home. 
— Bl. Henry Suso. 



Let us always remember the Last Judgment, after 
the example of St. Jerome, who, though a saint, 
never lost sight of it. — St. Teresa: Mansion 6th, Ch. 
IX. 



856 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

Death is welcome to one who has always feared 
'God and faithfully served Him. — Life of St, 
Teresa: Ch.XXVU: 



It is certain that no flower can bear fruit unless 
it dies ; so a person will commence to bear fruit in 
Jesus Christ in proportion as he renounces himself, 
abandons himself, and dies to himself and to all 
things. — Ven. John Tattler: Instit., Ch. XXII. 



We do not wholly receive the treasure of God's 
love because we do not wholly give ourselves to 
Him. — Life of St. Teresa: Ch. II. 



St. Francis of Assisi dwelt for entire hours upon 
these words : "My God and my All.'' 



There is nothing more salutary than to meditate 
each day upon the torments a Man-God has endured 
for us. The wounds of Jesus Christ pierce the 
hardest of hearts, they inflame the coldest. — St. Bon- 
aventtire. 



St. Magdalene of Pazzi, meditating upon the suf- 
ferings of Jesus Christ, crucifix in hand, with 
ardent love cried out : "O Love ! O Love ! never 
will my heart cease to tell Thee that Thou art its 
love." With St. Philip Neri, let us often exclaim: 
^* Jesus, my love !" 



Jesus Christ crucified is our model. His wounds 
preach to us of the afl-*ections which should animate 
us, what we should be and what we should do. — St. 
Bernard. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 857 

St. Thomas Aquinas, during a visit which he 
made to St. Bonaventure, asked the latter from 
what books he had drawn the erudition, the unction 
which made his writings so admirable. Showing 
him a crucifix, he replied : 'This is my book ; it is 
the source of all I have written. It is this which has 
taught me the little that I know." Let us press the 
crucifix to our lips, begging our divine Saviour to 
instruct us, to give us His love. 



The four extremities of the cross are ornamented 
with four precious pearls. Humility is placed at the 
foot, obedience occupies the right, patience the left ; 
charity, the first and queen of virtues, burns in let- 
ters of gold at the head. These four virtues shine in 
a most striking manner in the Passion of Jesus 
Christ. They are the four principal fruits which we 
must gather from meditating on Jesus crucified. — 
St, Bernard. 



Let us have a great devotion to the crucifix; let 
us often fix our eyes upon the image of Christ cruci- 
fied, and meditate on the excess of His love. Let 
us frequently kiss the crucifix with ardent love and 
earnest desire to please Him in all things. 



The name of Jesus is an impregnable rampart. 
There is no pearl, no ornament, that can be com- 
pared to the name of Jesus. We sound the harp's 
sweet harmonies when we pronounce the nam^e of 
Jesus. — BL Henry Siiso: Spiritual Letters. 



The book of Psalms is a poem written in heaven. 
Those who are able to appreciate its value become 
angels. Had we only the Psalter, that would suffice 
during the entire course of our life for our spiritual 



858 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. ' 

exercises, our readings, our prayers, and all other 
acts of adoration and homages which we should 
render to God. — Ven. Louis de Blots, O.S.B. 



The whole end of our meditation should be to 
have it followed by good actions ; for in it the soul 
considers how and what she must do to please God 
and how she must show by her works the love she 
bears Him. — St, Teresa: Mansion yth, Ch. IV. 



The humble, those who have a lowly opinion of 
themselves and love to be despised by others, please 
God the most. He makes it His delight to be with 
them, to pour upon them the treasures of His grace, 
to reveal to them His secrets, and to attract them 
sweetly to Himself. — Thomas a Kempis. 



Our Saviour has said that it is necessary for him 
who would become greater than others to make 
himself the least. This is a truth all Christians be- 
lieve. How is it so few conform their lives to it? — 
St. Vincent de Paul. 



Do not think you have made any progress in per- 
fection until you regard yourself as the last of all, 
and desire that all others should be preferred to you, 
because it belongs to those who are great in the sight 
of God to be little in their own eyes. — St. Teresa. 



Vain complacency, coupled with the desire that 
others would speak of us and praise us, is an evil 
which makes us forget God and spoils our holiest ac- 
tions. There is no vice more pernicious to those who 
would make any progress in the spiritual life. — St. 
Vincent de Paul, 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 859 

What does it signify if we are calumniated, 
despised, outraged by men, if we are innocent before 
God and agreeable in His eyes?- The saints made 
it their pleasure to be little and abject in the hearts 
of all. — St. Teresa. 



The most profound degree of humility is to re- 
ceive humiliations and abjections with the same 
complacency that vain persons do the greatest 
honors. — St. Francis de Sales. 



One of the best means to acquire humility is 
profoundly to engrave, in our minds this maxim: 
Each one is really only what he is in the eyes of 
God, nothing more. — Thomas a Kempis. 



Our principal business should be to conquer our- 
selves, and to become more perfect every day in this 
practice. It is particularly necessary that we should 
apply ourselves to be victorious in little temptations, 
regarding, e. g., vivacity, suspicions, jealousy, indo- 
lence, vanity. By so doing we shall obtain the 
strength to resist greater ones. — St. Francis de Sales. 



Mortification of the appetite is the A B C of the 
spiritual life. He who does not know how to sup- 
press the vice of gluttony in himself will only with 
great difficulty triumph over his other vices. He 
will be compelled to wage a continual war with 
them, if he would not have them govern him en- 
tirely. — St. Vincent de Paul. 



One of the things which keeps us far from per- 
fection is, without doubt, our tongue. When one 
has arrived at that point that he does not sin with the 



86o Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

tongue he is perfect, according to the Holy Ghost. 
This is why we must speak Httle and well — little and 
with simplicity, with charity, and in a manner that 
will make virtue appear amiable. — St, Francis de 
Sales. 



According to the doctrine of the saints, one of the 
principal means to lead a Christian and exemplary 
life is to observe modesty of the eyes. If there is 
nothing more necessary than this virtue to preserve 
piety in the soul and to edify our neighbor, there is 
nothing which tends more to sensuality and gives 
more scandal than the opposite fault, — Rodriguez, 



Believe me, the mortification of the senses — -of the 
sight, the hearing, the tongue — is more beneficial 
than to wxar a chain of iron or a hair-shirt. — St, 
Francis de Sales, 



We must above all labor to mortify, to root out 
our predominant passion ; I mean by this, that in- 
clination, that vice, that bad habit which governs us 
and leads us into sin. This is the king. When he is 
captured the battle is won. — Rodriguez. 



St. Ignatius frequently said to a novice who was 
of an extremely vivacious and fiery temperament : 
''My son, conquer yourself, and you will have in 
heaven a crow^n more splendid than many others who 
are more meek of character." One day the master 
of novices complained of him as being unmanage- 
able. The saint replied: 'T think he of whom you 
complain has made more progress in virtue in a few 
months than another whom you praise so much has 
made in a year." 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 86i 

It might be supposed of St. Francis de Sales that 
he was of a character naturally sweet. It was by 
virtue alone that he acquired this admirable sweet- 
ness with which he ravished all hearts. Anger, he 
was heard to say, was the passion he had most difn- 
culty in conquering. 



Whenever one feels excited with too much ardor, 
or is over-anxious to perform some action, no matter 
how holy it may be, if it be possible it is better to 
defer it till another time, when the heart is tranquil, 
lest self-love insensibly steal in and soil the purity of 
our intention. — St, Vincent de Paul, 



Do not think too highly of your own ideas. If 
your advice is asked, give it frankly, but with perfect 
indifference as to whether it be followed or rejected. 
Follow rather the advice of others than your own in 
all things permissible. — St. Francis de Sales. 



One Blessed he God in the time of adversity is 
worth more than / thank you said a thousand times 
in prosperity. — St. John of Avila, 



There is no sign more certain that one is of the 
number of the elect than, while leading a Christian 
life, to be the subject of sufferings, desolations and 
trials. — St. Louis Gonzaga. 



A certain merchant begged St. Teresa to recom.- 
mend him to God. She did so ; and having occasion 
to speak to him some time afterwards, she said : "I 
have prayed for you, and it has been revealed to me 
that your name is written in the book of life. As a 
proof of this I give you notice that, from this time 
henceforth, nothing will prosper with you in this 



862 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

world." And this was verified. But a short time 
intervened, when all the vessels he had upon the sea 
perished. His friends assisted him, and came to his 
rescue with another vessel to try his fortune again ; 
this likewise was lost. Finding himself in poverty 
he became content to possess but God. He finished 
his life in sanctity. 



If the Lord sends you great tribulations, it is a 
sign that He has great designs upon you, and that 
He wills that you become a saint. Would you be- 
come a great saint,. pray that He may send you suf- 
ferings. There is no wood more proper to enkindle 
and feed the fire of divine love than the wood of the 
cross. — St. Ignatius Loyola, 



Be assured that we shall obtain more grace and 
merit in one day by suffering patiently the afflictions 
which come to us from God or from our neighbor 
than we could acquire in ten years by mortifications 
and other exercises which are of our own choice. — 
St. Francis de Sales. 



My sisters, learn to suffer something for Jesus 
Christ without letting others perceive it. — St. 
Teresa. 



If you look upon the ground at the rod which 
Moses used before Pharao, it appears a frightful 
serpent ; but if you regard it in the hand of Moses, 
it is a wand with which he performed the greatest 
prodigies. So it is with tribulations. Considered in 
themselves, they are horrible ; but when one views 
them in the hand of God, they become sweet and 
delicious. — St. Francis de Sales. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saiiits. 863 

Meekness is a virtue which supposes a noble soul ; 
that is, those who possess this virtue are superior to 
all one may say of them or do to them. Though they 
may receive indignities from others in word or 
action, they preserve their tranquillity and lose not 
their peace of soul. — St. Thomas Aquinas. 



Th-e highest degree of meekness consists in serv- 
ing, honoring, and treating kindly those who are our 
inferiors and who treat us with ingratitude and in- 
solence. — St, Francis de Sales, 



Can there be anything really worthy of disturbing 
our peace? Should the universe be overthrown, I 
would not trouble myself. There is nothing in the 
world that can be compared to peace of heart. Pre- 
serve it at any cost. — St, Francis de Sales. 



The remedies against anger are, first, to prevent 
it, if possible, or to occupy the mind with thoughts 
which tend to allay the movements of the heart when 
excited; second, to imitate the apostle, who, in the 
time of tempest, had recourse to God, to whom it be- 
longs to give peace to the heart ; third, to do nothing, 
to say nothing, during the time the heart is agitated, 
relating to that which gave rise to anger ; fourth, to 
oblige ourselves to make acts of sweetness and 
humility toward those with whom we are inclined to 
be angry. — St. Francis de Sales. 



The perfection of a person in a community consists 
in an exact obedience to the Rules. He who ob- 
serves them most faithfully will without doubt be the 
most perfect. — Rodriguez, 



864 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

The companions of St. Aloysius Gonzaga attest 
that they never saw him fail in a single point of the 
Rule. 



The predestination of Religious is attached to a 
love of their Rule, and to the exact performance of 
what is their duty in virtue of their vocation. — St. 
Francis de Sales. 



Among the papers of St. Bonaventure was found 
the following, written in his hand : 'T have not en- 
tered religion to live as the others live, but to live as 
they ought to live, according to the spirit of the in- 
stitute, and in a perfect observance of the Rule. 
This is why, upon entering religion, I was given the 
Rules to read, not the lives of others. I accepted 
them voluntarily, and took them for the direction of 
the life I should lead. I ought, then, to observe them 
all, even if I saw no one else observe them.'' 



St. Francis de Sales paid the highest praise to a 
General of the Carthusians who was so punctual in 
observing the Rule that not even the newest novice 
could be more exact. 



St. John Berchmans, being on his death-bed, 
asked for a book of the Rules which he had so faith- 
fully observed. When it was given to him, he 
clasped it lovingly and said : ^'Holding this book, I 
die with confidence and joy." 



Obedience is without doubt more meritorious than 
any austerity. What austerity is greater than to 
keep the will continually submissive and obedient ? — 
St. Catharine of Bologna. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 865 

A great means to preserve one's peace and tran- 
quillity of heart continually is to receive as coming 
from the hands of God all things, whatever they may 
be and in whatever manner they may come. — St, 
Dorothy, 



It is plainly evident that he who feels inclined to 
perform a good work when it is contrary to obedi- 
ence yields to a temptation ; because when God fills a 
heart with inspirations the first is that of obedience. 
— St. Teresa. 



Perfect obedience is shown in three things — in 
the execution, in the will, and in the judgment. In 
the execution, by doing promptly, joyously, and 
punctually what the Superior orders ; in the will, by 
wiUing only what the Superior wills; in the judg- 
ment, by being of the same sentiments as the Su- 
perior. — St. Ignatius Loyola. 

He who is truly obedient makes no distinction be- 
tween one thing and another, one employment and 
another ; he desires nothing else but to execute faith- 
fully what is commanded. — St. Bernard. 



The excellence of obedience consists not in do- 
ing the will of a Superior who is sweet and good, 
who commands more by asking as a favor than by 
authority, but in being submissive to the yoke of 
one who is imperious, rigorous, ill-humored and ap- 
parently never satisfied. — St. Bernard. 



Unless you do violence to yourself, and unless you 
arrive at that point when it becomes indifferent to 
you whether you have one Superior or another, do 
not persuade yourself that you are a spiritual man 



866 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

and a faithful observer of your vows. — St. John of 
the Cross. 



When the Superior orders a thing, it is not he who 
speaks; it is God. The Superior is but a trumpet 
through which the voice of God passes. This is the 
key of obedience; this is why those who aim 
at perfection obey in all things so promptly, 
making no difference between one Superior or an- 
other, obeying in the same manner the lowest in 
charge the same as the highest, those who are im- 
perfect as well as the perfect. They pay no attention 
to the qualities nor the person of the Superior, but 
to God alone, who is always and at all times the 
same, equally worthy of our submission, on account 
of His perfections and His authority, which never 
change. — Rodriguez. 



Do you know why it is that many who are a long 
time in religion, practicing so many acts of obedience 
each day, do not acquire the habit of this virtue ? It 
is because they do not obey to do the will of God. 
This should be the reason of our obedience. — 
Rodriguez. 

St. Magdalene of Pazzi regarded always the per- 
son of God in her Superiors. In obeying them she 
desired to do the will of God ; all that her Superior 
commanded her seemed ordered by God. On this 
account she always experienced inexpressible satis- 
faction in obeying. 



To be truly obedient it is not sufficient to do what 
is commanded; we must do still more : obey without 
hesitation and without question. Hold it for certain 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 867 

that what is commanded is what you can do best and 
most perfectly, although it may not appear so to you. 
—St. Philip Neri. 



Those who make profession of following the max- 
ims of Jesus Christ should greatly esteem simplicity. 
Although, in the judgment of the wise ones of the 
world, there is nothing more contemptible than 
simplicity, it is, nevertheless, a very amiable virtue, 
because it directly conducts to the kingdom of God, 
and likewise gains for us the affections of men. — St. 
Francis de Sales. 



Those who possess the virtue of simplicit}- make 
themselves loved even by those who are deceitful. — 
Si. Vincent de Paul 



Simplicity is nothing else but a pure and simple 
act of charity; its only end is the love of God. 
Our soul is truly simple when we have only this 
end in all we do. — St. Francis de Sales. 



The office of simplicity is to make us go straight 
to God, without listening to human respect, without 
consulting our own interest; to make us speak 
frankly and from our heart ; to make us act simply, 
without any mingling of hypocrisy or artifice ; 
finally, to keep us far from duplicity or deceit. — St. 
Vincent de Paul. 



When a soul that is simple wishes to say or do 
something, it is content to consider if it be ex- 
pedient to do so, without taking time to consider 
what others may think or say. After having de- 
cided upon what to do, she does it, and thinks no 
more of it. If thoughts of what others may say 



868 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

come to mind, she makes no account of them, be- 
cause she seeks only to please God, not creatures, 
and this is all that the love of God requires.— ^'f. 
Francis de Sales, 



It does not suffice to do good things. We must 
do more ; we must do them well, after the example 
of Jesus Christ, of whom it is written : "He hath 
done all things well.'' Let us, then, study to per- 
form all our actions in the spirit of Jesus Christ; 
that is, in the manner He performed His actions, 
proposing to ourselves the same end ; otherwise every 
work, good perhaps in itself, will bring upon us pun- 
ishment rather than rewards. — St, Vincent de Paul. 



Many persuade themselves that they have no true 
sorrow for their sins if they do not practice many 
and great corporal austerities. Let us learn, never- 
theless, that he does a good penance who studies to 
please God alone, at all times and in all things. This 
is a very perfect thing and of great merit. — St. 
Francis de Sales. 



The Saints arrived at sanctity by devoting them- 
selves to the sanctification of all their actions ; they 
did all they believed Our Lord asked of them in the 
most perfect manner possible. 



St. John Berchmans, that servant of God who 
labored continually to become a saint by performing 
in the most perfect manner possible his ordinary 
actions, had taken for his motto this sentence, which 
he studied frequently : ''Poenitentia maxima vita 
communis,'' "My greatest penance is the ordinary 
life." Perfection in the common life ; let that be our 
aim. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 869 

Our Lord does not measure our perfection by the 
number and greatness of the works we do, but by 
the manner in which we do them ; and this manner 
is the love with which and by which we perform 
them. Actions are more perfect according as the 
love with which they are performed is more pure 
and more perfect. — St, John of the Cross. 



The Divine Office is one of the most excellent of 
actions. In reciting it we celebrate the praises of 
God, which is the ministry which belongs to the 
angels. We should not then acquit ourselves of this 
duty through habit and without piety, but with all 
the devotion of which we are capable.- — St. Mag- 
^dalene of Pazzi. 



The examination of conscience which all pious 
persons are in the habit of making every night be- 
fore taking their rest is a great help, not only to 
conquer our evil inclinations, but to acquire virtue 
and to perform our ordinary actions well. It is not 
so much to discover the faults of which we have 
been guilty during the day that we make this ex- 
amen, as to conceive a lively sorrow for them, to 
form the resolution not to fall again into them, to 
do penance for them and, especially, to advance in 
virtue. — Blessed John of Avila. 



Be careful lest you think the time lost that you 
give to acquit yourself perfectly of your employ- 
ment. It is very agreeable to God to leave our exer- 
cises of piety which are not of obligation, when duty 
calls us elsewhere.— vS^. Teresa. 



Do not fear that those occupations which come 
under the rule of obedience, no matter how great or 



870 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

how multiplied they may be, can be a hindrance to 
union with God. If they are performed in the 
presence of God and for His glory, on the contrary, 
they unite one more intimately with God ; for how 
can that which unites our wnll with God's will keep 
us afar from Him ? — St, Francis de Sales, 



Exterior occupations were not for St. Magdalene 
of Pazzi an obstacle to recollection ; they were not 
even a cause of distraction. 'Tt is the same to me," 
she said one day, ''whether I am ordered to go to 
pray with my Sisters in the choir or to do some 
manual labor. Oftentimes I have found more of 
God in work than in prayer.'' 



One of the great obstacles to the well-doing of 
our actions is that while we do one thing we think 
of another that we have done or that we are yet to 
do. The manner of doing each action well is to give 
attention only to the one we are actually performing, 
doing it as perfectly as we can, and when it is done 
think no more of it, lest it prevent us from occupy- 
ing ourselves well with what we have on hand. — 
John of Avila, 



''Age quod agis." "What thou doest do with all 
thy heart." 



One obstacle to the goodness of our actions is pre- 
cipitation. Look well to this fault, which is a 
capital enemy of true devotion. No action done 
with precipitation is w^ell done. Those who are 
traveling find it best to go always with an equal 
step. — St. Francis de Sales. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 871 

Be self-possessed, said another wise director of 
consciences, in all that you do. Thus you will avoid 
many faults. One does that fast enough which is 
well done, ''Sat cito si sat bene/' 



Still another obstacle to the well-doing of our 
actions is worry and solicitude. Great affairs do 
not distract us so much as small ones when these 
are numerous. This is why we must receive them 
peacefully, striving to do them in order one after 
the other, without anxiety. By so doing, they be- 
come for us occasions of much merit. — St. Francis 
de Sales, 



The works of God are almost always done little 
by little ; they have their commencement and their 
progress. One must not pretend to do all in a mo- 
ment, in haste, nor think all is lost if one does not 
become perfect at once. We must always advance, 
but without anxiety. Pray much and make use of 
the means suggested by the Holy Ghost, paying no 
attention to the false maxims of the world. — 5"^. 
Vincent de Paul, 



St. Vincent de Paul was very slow to decide upon 
any matter. Nevertheless, his slowness, which to 
some appeared excessive, never had any bad re- 
sults, never injured any affair of which he had 
charge. Every one was surprised to see that he suc- 
ceeded in all he undertook. Still more, at the same 
time that everything prospered w^ith him he ac- 
quired treasures of merit in heaven, because charity 
animated all that he did for his neighbor. 



Among many excellent means that are given to 
perform our actions well, I recommend this to you : 



872 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

To perform each of your actions as if it were to be 
the last one of your Hfe. Ask yourself while you do 
it this question : If I knew that this was the last 
hour of my life, would I do it in this manner? — St. 
Vincent de Paul. 



All that we do receives its value from our con- 
formity to the will of God ; for instance, if I take 
recreation because it is the will of God I merit 
more than if I suffered death without having that 
intention. Keep well in your mind this thought, 
and remember it iti all your actions, in imitation of 
the carpenter, who passes all the boards he uses un- 
der the plane. It is thus you will do all with per- 
fection. — St. Francis de Sales. 



It was this truth of which a Jesuit Brother w^as 
well convinced when he said that when at table, 
taking his repast, he did as much as the apostle of 
the Indies, because St. Francis Xavier in preaching 
the Gospel simply did the will of God, and he him- 
self accomplished that will when he was in the re- 
fectory during the time the Rule required it. 



If it happens that you say or do something which 
is not well received by all, you should not for this 
reason reflect much upon it, because it is beyond a 
doubt that it is self-love which makes us seek to be 
approved in what we say or do. Simplicity aban- 
dons to Providence the success of actions done for 
Him. — St. Francis de Sales. 



Christian prudence consists in judging, speaking, 
and acting as the Eternal Wisdom, when robed in 
our mortal nature, judged, spoke, and acted, and in 
governing one's self in every circumstance accord- 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 873 

ing to the maxims of faith, not according to the 
false sentiments of the world, or according to the 
weak light of its understanding. — St, Vincent de 
Paul. 



God is a being very simple. This is why, if we de- 
sire to make ourselves, as far as it is possible, like to 
Him, we should endeavor to be by virtue what God 
is by nature ; that is, to have a heart simple, a mind 
simple, an intention simple, a manner simple, a 
language simple ; to walk honestly, without artifice, 
with an exterior conformable to our interior, re- 
garding God alone in all our actions, whom alone 
we should desire to please. — St, Vincent de Paul. 



A friend will visit his friend in the morning to 
wish him a good-day ; in the evening, a good-night ; 
taking also an opportunity to converse with him 
during the day. In like manner make visits to Jesus 
Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, if your duties per- 
mit it. It is especially at the foot of the altar that 
one prays well. In all your visits to Our Saviour, 
frequently offer His precious blood to the Eternal 
Father. You will find these visits very conducive to 
your growth in the knowledge and love of Our 
Lord. — St. Magdalene of Pazzi, 



Make frequent use of short, indulgenced prayers, 
aspirations, and ejaculations. St. Francis de Sales 
and St. Thomas Aquinas often made ejaculatory 
prayers. Every time that St. Ignatius heard the 
clock strike he recollected himself and elevated his 
heart to God. St. Vincent de Paul was exact in ob- 
serving the same practice. 



874 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

Let us bless God that we are children of His 
Mother; let us imitate her and consider our great 
happiness in having her as our patroness and ad- 
vocate. The devotions we practice in honor of the 
glorious Virgin Mary, however trifling they may be, 
are very pleasing to her divine Son, and He re- 
wards them with eternal glory. — St. Teresa: Book 
of the Foundations, Ch. I. 



Let the name of Mary be ever on your lips ; let 
it be indelibly engraven on your heart. If you are 
under her protection, you have nothing to fear ; if 
she is propitious, you will arrive at the port of sal- 
vation. — St. Bernard, 0. Cist. 



I have noticed that all those who have true devo- 
tion to St. Joseph and render him special honor are 
very much advanced in virtue, for he takes great 
care of souls who recommend themselves to him ; 
and I have never asked him anything which he did 
not obtain for me. — Life of St. Teresa: Ch. VL 



The way by which we reach God is indisputably 
by means of works of mercy. — St. Angela of Merici. 



Almost all the faults that persons in religion com- 
mit against their Rules and in their exercises of 
piety arise from the facility with which they lose 
sight of the presence of God.- — St. Francis de Sales. 



There is a certain manner of prayer rnost simple 
and very useful ; it is, to be habitually in the pres- 
ence of God. And this sight of God will produce 
in us an intimate union with Him, a simple and per- 
fect intention. Oh, how precious is this manner of 
prayer ! — St. Francis de Sales. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 875 

'Think of Me, and I will think of thee," said Our 
Lord to a saint. He would have him understand 
that the continual remembrance of God is an excel- 
lent means not only of not offending God, but also 
of being enriched with His favors. 



It is certain that God desires that which is most 
advantageous to us much more than we desire it 
ourselves. He knows better than we by what means 
that which is best for us must arrive. The choice of 
means is entirely in His hands, since it is He who 
disposes and regulates all things in the world. It 
is also certain that in events which happen, that 
which befalls us will always be best for us. — St. 
Augustine. 



Let us endeavor to conceive a great diffidence in 
ourselves, and always to have this truth present to 
our mind, that of ourselves we are good for nothing, 
that we can but spoil the designs of God. If we 
keep this thought in view, it wall cause us to depend 
entirely upon God and bring us often to Him to ob- 
tain His help. — St. Vincent de Paul. 



God takes care of those who place all their 
thoughts in Him and depend interiorly on Him, 
serving Him with great fidelity. He protects us in 
proportion to our confidence in Him. He comes to 
our help in every danger, having an infinite love for 
souls who jrest in Him. — St. Francis de Sales. 



St. Francis of Assisi and his sons had nothing, 
yet they never suffered for clothing to cover them 
nor for food to sustain them. When he sent his com- 
panions anywhere to preach, he addressed them in 



876 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

the words of the prophet: ''J acta super Dominum 
curam tuam et ipse te emttriet/' ''Cast your care 
upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.'' In speak- 
ing of his community and of God, he would say: 
'*We have a mother who is very poor, but we have a 
Father who is very rich/' 



When we propose to undertake something belong- 
ing to the service of God, having invoked His light 
and feeling assured that it is His will, we must make 
use of the human means which are necessary and 
proper to execute the orders of divine Providence; 
nevertheless, it is not upon these means we must rely, 
but solely upon the divine assistance ; from this we 
must expect success, being well persuaded that what- 
ever may happen will be for our advantage. — St. 
Vincent de PaiiL 



In our various employments and in the cares 
which attend them, we must not be disquieted nor 
act with haste. Devote a reasonable and moderate 
attention to them, and then leave them to divine 
Providence, giving place to Him to regulate things 
and manifest His will. Be certain that when God 
wills that an undertaking succeed delay never 
harms it ; there is always more of Him in propor- 
tion as there is less of ourselves in it.— 5^. Vincent 
de Paul, 



When we have undertaken a work foT God, cer- 
tain that it is His will, it is necessary to be coura- 
geous and persevere to the end, no matter how mul- 
tiplied or great the obstacles may be. Divine Prov- 
idence never fails in things which we have com- 
menced by His order. — St. Vincent de Paul. Never 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 877 

was this saint discouraged by difficulties. In pro- 
portion as he saw obstacles, he displayed more con- 
stancy and resolution. 



Weak souls, who are filled with self-love and a 
desire to be esteemed, at the first sign of the slight- 
est calumny take fire, burn with indignation, and 
can not recover their peace without many words es- 
caping them. It is not thus with generous souls, 
who seek only to please God. They know well that 
God sees their innocence, and that He will not fail 
to defend them in the way which is most for their 
good. — St. Augustine. 



When we find ourselves in danger we should not 
lose courage, but confide perfectly in Our Lord. The 
greater the peril, the nearer is the help of Him who 
calls Himself our aid in tribulation. — St. Ambrose. 



St. Ignatius was on the sea at one time when a 
great tempest arose. The sails of the vessel were 
torn to pieces ; all on board, except the saint, were 
in fright and tears ; they expected nothing but 
death. St. Ignatius alone was tranquil and without 
fear. He was calm because these words were 
present to his mind : ''The winds and the sea obey 
the Lord.'' ''The tempest did not arise without His 
permission,'' he said, "and without it we can not 
be lost. The Lord is master. If He wills that I 
perish in the waters, I consent, I will it. I confide 
in His mercy." 



It suffices for a soul that loves God as it ought to 
love Him to know that a thing is right, and that it 
will redound to His glory to do it immediately, with- 



878 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

out hesitation, with a desire to please Him, and to 
show Him its love. O my God, how easy Thou 
makest the most difficult things to those who love 
Thee ardently, and who abandon all for Thy love ! — 
St. Teresa. 



St. Teresa ardently desired a reform in her Rule 
in order to be more detached from all things and to 
follow more perfectly her vocation. Nevertheless, 
she desired it in such a spirit that if the Lord had 
made her understand that He wished her to aban- 
don the undertaking entirely, she would have done 
so instantly without any pain. It was to put in exe- 
cution this great desire which burned within her, 
namely, to do only what is most pleasing to God, 
that she made a vow to do always that which she 
knew to be the most perfect. For many it might be 
rash to make such a vow ; but in doing this, St. 
Teresa felt that God asked it of her. She never 
failed in one point to keep her vow. 



The Church, in the prayers in which she invokes 
St. Ignatius Loyola, makes us understand that the 
true and distinctive character of this saint was to do 
all for the greater glory of God, and indeed he con- 
stantly inculcated upon others the importance of do- 
ing all things Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. 

**Not with the hope of gaining aught, 
Not seeking a reward, 
But as Thyself hast loved me, 
O ever loving Lord ! 

"E'en so I love Thee, and will love, 

And in Thy praise will sing. 
Solely because Thou art my God 

And my eternal King." 

— Hymn of St. Francis Xavier. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 879 

''All for the greater glory of God!" St. Ignatius 
'Loyola repeats these words three hundred and sev- 
enty-six times in his Constitutions. — Snares: de 
Rclig., Vol. IV; Book VIII, Ch. VI; No. i. 



It is greater to practice self-denial than to raise 
the dead. — Nolarci, 



He who nurtures in himself the germ of trouble 
and uneasiness, that is to say, opposition between 
his private judgment and the rules of obedience, will 
never enjoy peace of heart nor tranquillity of mind. 
— Letter of St. Ignatius on Obedience. 



In our ministry to men we must imitate the angels. 
They do not neglect any means to procure the sal- 
vation of men, but the result, whether good or bad, 
causes them to lose nothing of their blessed and 
eternal peace. — Ribadeneira: Book V; Ch. II. 



I will carefully consider how, on the day of judg- 
ment, I would wish to have discharged my office or 
my duty; and the way that I would wish to have 
done it then, I shall do now. — Spiritual Exercises. 



Obedience, by its sacrifices, resembles martyrdom. 
They who, by a generous effort, make up their 
minds to obey, acquire great merit. — St. Ignatius: 
Letter 50. 



Place before your eyes as models for imitation 
not the weak and cowardly, but the fervent and 
courageous. — St. Ignatius: Letter 50. 



To conquer himself is the grandest victory that 
man can gain. — St. Ignatius: Letter 51. 



88o Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

The despising of one's self in the midst of honors 
and riches, and disdain for all glory, should be 
esteemed m.ore highly than corporal mortification. — 
Bartoli. 



We must practice both interior and exterior mor- 
tification, but with this difference, that we must 
give ourselves up to the first particularly , always, 
and without exception; to the second, on the con- 
trary, only as far as circumstances and the par- 
ticular condition of persons and occasions will per- 
mit. — Bartoli: Book III. 



One ought to obey a Superior not on account of 
his wisdom, goodness, or other qualities which God 
has given him, but only because he is God's repre- 
sentative, and acts by His authority, who has said : 
''He that heareth you heareth Me ; he that despiseth 
you despiseth Me.'' — St. Ignatius: Letter on Obe- 
dience. 



In speaking to the sad and sore of heart present 
to them a cheerful and serene countenance ; speak 
with all sweetness, so as to restore them the more 
easily to peace and tranquillity, overcoming in this 
way one extreme by another. — St. Ignatius: In- 
struction to Fathers Sahneron and Broet. 



Never accept as undoubtedly true what an accuser 
says, until after you have heard the accused and 
found him guilty. Do not lightly condemn the 
actions of others ; we must consider the intention of 
our neighbor, which is often good and pure, al- 
though the act itself seems blameworthy. Treat 
sinners as a good mother treats her sick child ; she 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 88i 

lavishes more caresses on her child when he is sick 
than when he is well. — Bartoli, 



Vanity and vainglory are vices born of ignorance 
and blind self-love. — St. Ignatius. 



Put not off till to-morrow what you can do to- 
day. — Bartoli: Book IV. 



Before choosing let us examine well whether the 
attachment we feel for an object springs solely from 
the love of God. — Spiritual Exercises. 



If God gives you much suffering it is a sign that 
He wishes to make you a great saint. — Bartoli: 
Book IV. 



The value of a thing is only its worth before God. 
-Ibid. 



Do you wish to be always happy? Then be al- 
ways humble and obedient. — A. Cost ems. 



The life of a Christian is a perpetual warfare : but 
the strife is but for a few fleeting years, and then it 
will be succeeded by an eternity of peace and glory. 
— Father Clare, S.J. 



Every time you hear the clock strike, remember 
you are not the master of the next hour, and think, 
at the same time, of the Passion Our Lord was 
pleased to suffer to gain eternity for you. — Blessed 



Labre Cordigere. 



882 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

The subject ought to behold in his superior, not 
the man, but Him for whose love he has sacrificed 
his will ; and the fewer qualities the superior has, 
the greater merit there is in obeying him. — St, Fran- 
cis: Monastic Conference, 4. 



God afflicts man for several reasons: ist, To in- 
crease his merit ; 2d, That he may retain His grace ; 
3d, To punish his faults; 4th, To show forth His 
glory and His other attributes. — St, Anthony of 
Padua: Sermon for Lent, 31. 



The holiest man is not he who holds the holiest 
station, but he who best fulfils the duties of the 
state in which divine Providence has placed him. — 
St. Lidwine, 



I especially exhort you, my brethren in the Lord, 
while engaged with the world, not to argue, nor be 
boisterous, nor to judge others, but to be gentle, 
peaceful, reserved, agreeable, humble; in fine, to 
speak kindly to all, as it behooves you to do. — St, 
Francis: Rule of the Friars Minor, 



Happy is he who does not excuse himself, but re- 
ceives blame and humiliation silently, even when 
the fault is involuntary. — St, Francis: Monastic 
Conference, 11. 



It is safer and easier to decline presents entirely 
than to determine upon those which one may receive 
without danger; for it is not easy for a man who 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints, 883 

has commenced to receive them to know where it is 
proper to stop. — St. Elzeaf, Third Order, 



Be always patient and agreeable; if any one has 
offended you, offer to God the pain you have suf- 
fered. By this mark I will know if you are God's 
servant, z'is., if you bring back kindly to God the 
brother who has gone astray, and if you never cease 
to love the man who has been very culpable. — St. 
Francis: First Letter to Brother Elias. 



In every undertaking, temporal as well as spirit- 
ual, do your part, leave God to do His, and hold 
your peace. — St. Joseph of Cupertino. 



Charity is a fire ; but three things can extinguish 
it : the whirlwind of pride, the inundations of glut- 
tony and luxury, and the dense fumes of avarice. — 
St, Anthony of Padua: Sermons. 



The surest means of obtaining God's grace is by 
holy indifference, and by resignation to His holy 
will. — St. Joseph of Cupertino, 



Happy is he who has charity for every one, and 
who does not desire, moreover, that they have 
charity for him ; and happy, too, is he who performs 
great services for his neighbor, yet does not trouble 
himself about receiving like services in return. — 
Bl. Egidius of Assisi. 



If we understood the nature of purgatory, we 
would be more anxious to free the dear souls there. 



884 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

O ! purgatory, how terrible thou art ! — Ven. Mary 
Chembine of the Clares, 



The sacrifice of our will is the best and most ac- 
ceptable offering that we can make to God. — St. 
Joseph of Cupertino. 



The best perfection is to do ordinary things in a 
perfect manner. Constant fidelity in little things is 
a great and heroic virtue. — St, Bonaventure: Mir- 
ror of the Novices, 



He who is charged with the care and direction of 
others, and who holds the highest place, should be 
as the least of all and the servant of his brethren, 
and use toward each of them the condescension 
which he would wish to be shown to himself if he 
were their inferior. — St, Francis: In Second Letter 
to the Faithful. 



May your discourse be seasoned with the pre- 
cious salt of prudence and charity. Be not too seri- 
ous nor yet unseasonably jocose nor immoderately 
gay ; let your manner be agreeable and regulated by 
Christian modesty. — St. Leonard of Port Maurice, 



There are many who are given to prayer and 
works of zeal, who undergo self-privations and 
mortification, but who, for a word which seems in- 
jurious to them, or for some little misunderstand- 
ing, immediately take offense ; such are, indeed, not 
poor in spirit.-— 5*^. Francis: Monastic Conference, 
14. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 885 

He is truly obedient who permits himself to be 
removed without murmuring, who is indifferent to 
the office given him, or does not desire any other 
place, and who, elevated to an important position, 
remains as humble as before. — St, Francis: Ex- 
amples, I. 



If you are faithful in doing the will of God in this 
life, your own wall shall be accomplished through- 
out eternity. The Heart of Jesus is at least worth 
yours. Leave all, and you will find all in the Sacred 
Heart. How sweet it wall be to die after having had 
a constant devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — 
of Him who will be Our Judge. — Bl. Margaret 
Mary. 



Consider the answer which Christ gave the scribe. 
''The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, 
but the Son of man hath not whereon to lay His 
head." As if He wished to insinuate this sentiment 
— why should you wish to follow Me for worldly 
wealth, when I have no lodging of My own, being 
more poorly provided than the very beasts of the 
field and the birds of the air ? O wonderful poverty 
of this sovereign King! This poverty, however, is 
of such immense value as to be able to purchase 
the kingdom of heaven. ''Blessed are the poor in 
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt, 
v. 3). The true disciples of Jesus Christ ought, 
like their master, to have no coffers in which to 
hoard their treasures (as foxes "have their holes"), 
and they ought not to be like birds who build their 
nests on high ; that is, they ought not to seek high 
and dignified employment, but court humility and 
obscurity. Their Master was "poor and in labors 



886 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

from His youth'' (Ps. Ixxxvii. i6). Ponder the im- 
port of the Prophet's words : ''Though thou be ex- 
alted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest 
among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith 
the Lord" (Abdias, 4). — Baxter: Meditations. 



There is nothing that will make your heart more 
conformable to the Heart of Jesus than sincerity, 
simplicity, and humility. — Bl. Margaret Mary. 



In all your actions avoid haste and eagerness, en- 
deavoring to form your exterior as well as your in- 
terior upon the model of Jesus Christ and His Sa- 
cred Heart. Employ well the present time without 
being uneasy about the future. — Bl. Margaret Mary. 



Striving after perfection, is another way of saying 
'self-conquest." — Fr. Dignam, S.J. 



To brood over our sufferings is poison to the 
soul, so also is pondering over the faults of others. 
Count as a fault each time you think of any one's 
faults without thinking of their good qualities and 
praising God for them. We were created to praise. 
How peaceful will be the death of one who has 
never allowed himself to judge or say an unkind 
word! He wrll find at his judgment the Sacred 
Heart to be an open tabernacle where he will rest 
forever. — Ibid. 



To have a smile for all is a great means of doing 
good. But only those who try know how hard it is. 
We shall succeed better if we learn to smile at God ; 
for He, dear Lord, loves to see us smile at Him, 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 887 

and, like His creatures, He is pleased with our 
cheerfulness. — Ibid, 



Severity toward ourselves should render us more 
meek, indulgent, and afifable toward others. If our 
neighbor's act has one hundred sides, we should al- 
ways look at it from its most favorable side. — Ibid. 



I will spare no effort to maintain a constant peace 
and interior joy. — Father Schneider, S.I. 



How should we employ our time? (i) We should 
keep steadily to our spiritual duties; (2) Fulfil the 
duties of our state of life; (3) Do what we owe to 
our station ; ( 4) Fill up our spare time well ; (5) Do 
even our least actions in a spirit of faith and love. 
You will never feel any sacrifice if you love. Look 
at the intensity of love and the loyalty of the saints ; 
these ought to be a stimulus for us. In all circum- 
stances let our prayer be: ''Non mea voluntas, sed 
tua Hat.'' It will bring us strength and consolation, 
and will render us cheerful and ready to bear every 
hardship. Glory is only to be earned by the cross. — 
Father Clare, S.I. 



Try to be unnoticed except when called on to 
com.e forward in the cause of God and our neighbor. 
With what zeal ought we not to labor for the poor, 
so especially dear to our blessed Lord, and how- 
ready we should be at all times to comfort and en- 
courage them in their sorrow and sufferings. — Ibid, 



If we would please God we must make up our 
minds to trample upon human respect, to disregard 
the opinions of men, and to reject all fear of what 



888 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

the world will say, whenever there is a question of 
performing our duty. — Ibid. 



Break off prayer or any occupation for your suf- 
fering neighbor's sake ; but, like Mary, have Christ 
with you whithersoever you go. Be assured that 
nothing brings so much consolation and sweetness to 
souls that love God as leaving Christ for Christ. — 
St. Philip Neri. 



When you cannot obtain justice, suffer and be 
silent. Lay your case in secret before God, and 
He will turn all things to your good. 



What folly is this, O my God ? Why are we so 
concerned at being falsely accused by all men, if 
we are innocent before Thee? — St. Teresa. 



"Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath 
care of you." — i Pet. v. 7. 



Jesus is ever to be found in the tabernacle. In 
trial or sorrow look not to men for comfort, but 
seek Jesus as your friend, and with Him alone will 
you find perfect peace. 



What can the world give thee without Jesus? To 
be without Jesus is a grievous hell ; to be with Jesus 
is a sweet paradise. — The Imitation. 



''You shall seek Me, and shall find Me when you 
shall seek Me with all your heart.'' — ler. xxix. 13. 



Learn of Mary on Calvary so to assist at holy 
Mass that you may die to yourself and live only for 
God and your neighbor. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 889 

The most mortified will be the most tenderly 
caressed by the Heart of Jesus. The most charitable 
will be the best loved by the Heart of Jesus. The 
most silent will be the best instructed by the Sacred 
Heart. The most obedient will have the mxOst credit 
and power with the Heart of Jesus. — BL Margaret 
Mary. 



Jesus wills that you should be attentive to Him and 
prompt to follow His lights and movements. Jesus 
loves you, and will not permit you to perish while 
you have confidence in Him. United in spirit to the 
choir of angels, pray frequently and earnestly for the 
conversion of sinners, the perseverance of the sick 
and agonizing, and the release of the souls in purga- 
tory. O Jesus, form my heart according to Thy 
Heart, and then my life, whole and entire, will flow 
on according to Thy good pleasure. — St. Gertrude. 



God has exalted Mary above all creatures, so in 
your heart and soul she must reign supreme after 
Him. Consider w^hat is w^anting in your reverence, 
love, and devotion. 



The Mother of God is the ladder of heaven. God 
came down to earth by this ladder, that men might 
use the same means to climb up to Him in heaven. — 
St. Fulgenthis. 



Strive, like Mary, to fulfil faithfully, and for God, 
the ordinary duties of your state, especially those 
which are repugnant to you. 

Nothing, however trifling, done for God's sake, 
will go unrewarded. — The Imitation. 



Sqo Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

Self-contempt and perfect union with the divine 
will : these are the main points of the Christian life. 
— St, Paul of the Cross: ''Passion Flozvers/' 



Have you ever noticed rocks in the sea, beaten by 
the tempest? A furious wave dashes against the 
rock, another and yet another does likewise, yet the 
rock is unmoved. But look at it after the storm 
has subsided, and you will see that the flood has but 
served to wash and purify it of the defilement it had 
contracted during the calm. Hereafter I wish you 
to be as a rock. A wave dashes against you? 
Silence ! It assails you ten, a hundred, a thousand 
times ? Silence ! Say, at most, in the midst of the 
storm, "My Father, my Father, I am all Thine ! O 
dear, O sweet will of God, I adore thee!'' — Ibid. 



Remember that true holiness is accompanied by 
pains and tribulations from within and without, by 
attacks of visible and invisible enemies, by trials of 
body and mind, by desolations and prolonged aridi- 
ties ; *'and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus 
shall suffer persecution'' (2 Tim. iii. 12), that is to 
say, all sorts of trials from demons, from men, and 
from our rebellious flesh. — Ibid. 



God usually deprives His servants, for a time, of 
all consolation, that they may learn to serve Him 
through pure love, and become truly faithful ser- 
vants. He deprives them of spiritual delights, even 
on the most solemn occasions, to test their faith and 
fidelity. ''Sursttm corda'' then ; let us lift up our 
hearts and generously serve our great God and Our 
Lord Jesus in faith and pure love. — Ibid. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 891 

The best way to acquire that peace which is born 
of the love of God, the inexhaustible Source of all 
virtues, is to accept all tribulations, whether spirit- 
ual or temporal, as coming directly from the pa- 
ternal hand of God; to look upon all unpleasant 
events as very costly gifts presented to us by our 
heavenly Father ; to repeat often the sacred words 
of Our Saviour : "Yea, Father, for so hath it 
seemed good in Thy sight" (Matt. xi. 26). — Ibid. 



When our pious undertakings meet with little 
success, let us not be troubled ; when God wills any- 
thing to be done for His glory He will not fail to 
urge on the work until it is accomplished. — Ibid, 



Suffering is but brief; joy will be eternal. 



The indulgenced ejaculation which the Passion- 
ists call "the offering'' is this : "Eternal Father, I 
offer Thee the precious blood of Jesus, in satisfac- 
tion for my sins, and for the wants of holy Church." 
It is indulgenced one hundred days for every time 
we say it "with at least contrite hearts and devo- 
tion.'' But after the words "for the wants of holy 
Church" we may add any intention we please with- 
out losing the indulgence. So we make it as fol- 
lows : "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the precious 
blood of Jesus, in satisfaction for my sins, for 
the wants of holy Church, for the conversion of sin- 
ners, and for the suffering souls in purgatory." We 
add these two intentions because they are the best 
in point of charity. — Edmund Hill, C.P.: Devotion 
to the Passion. 



Indulgenced ejaculatory prayer for the renewal of 
the religious profession : "Heart of Jesus, Victim of 



892 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

Love, make me a living and holy sacrifice to Thee, 
and pleasing to God!" — Ind. 50 Days: Pius X., Feb, 
27, 1907. 



The saints were not satisfied with refraining 
from doing to others what they would not wish 
done to themselves ; they did to others what they 
would wish done to themselves; or, rather, forget- 
ting themselves, they thought only of God and their 
neighbor. It has been wisely remarked that the 
harder they were on themselves, the more lenient 
and condescending they were toward others. Holy 
humility kept them in spirit under the feet of every 
one, and made them believe that they were unworthy 
of the least regard. Far from showing themselves 
exacting, they thought that too much attention and 
kindness were paid them ; hence, they expressed 
profound gratitude for the least services. Nothing 
deterred them, except obedience, when there was 
question of obliging others. Let us be polite in the 
least details of life, with the politeness inspired by 
charity and the spirit of faith. — Demore. 



Endeavor to be ready to work or rest, to live or 
die, only as God wishes. — Bozuden. 



I wish, with all my heart, to be fortified by the 
Sacraments before I die ; but I have the hardihood 
to prefer the providence of my Lord and my God to 
all the Sacraments ; and I think this is the safest 
preparation for death. — St. Gertrude, 



''My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, 
that I may perfect His work." — John iv. 34. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 893 

^'Behold/' says Christ to His disciples, "I send 
you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye, there- 
fore, wise as serpents, and simple as doves" (Matt. 
X. 16). Thus He wishes the serpent's wisdom to be 
united with the simplicity of the dove in the char- 
acter of His apostles. He requires that they should 
be prudent, in seizing proper occasions and times of 
doing good to their neighbors ; simple, in acting 
with sincerity and purity of intention withput 
double-dealing, acrimony or malice. *'Thy eyes are 
as those of doves," says the spouse in the Canticle, 
that is, pure and simple. Let these be the model of 
your rectitude of intention. — Baxter: Meditations. 



*Tn your patience possess ye your souls." St. 
Augustine defines patience as ''a virtue which 
enables us to endure with tranquillity the misfor- 
tunes of life, whatever they may be." Patience has 
various degrees ; by the first we bear pain rather 
than offend God ; by the second we accept trials with 
calm and resignation ; by the third we ardently de- 
sire to suffer for the love of God. Our dear Lady 
practiced patience in its highest degree. Her life 
was full of sorrows, which she accepted joyfully as 
a means of imitating her divine Son. Look at our 
patient Mother standing on Calvary, suffering as no 
creature ever suffered, and yet so gentle, so for- 
giving to Jesus' persecutors, so perfectly calm be- 
cause her patience had its source in her burning love 
of God. — Madame Cecilia: Mater Mea, 



''My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." 
Mary could have said in union with Jesus, ''My 
meat and drink is to do the will of my Father." It 
was this spiritual joy that ever sustained her. Re- 
pulsed from door to door in the chill December 



894 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

night, ''it is His will/' Toiling across the barren 
sands, ... a stranger among the idolaters of 
Egypt, ''it is His will.'' Following the blood-stained 
footsteps of her Son, childless and desolate at the 
third hour, "it is His will," . . . and yet even now, 
''Exultavit Spiritus meus/' — Father Humphrey: 
Mary Magnifying God. 



Be bright and cheerful. Forget yourself and 
strive to make others happy. 



Oh, how many wonderful examples of obedience 
to the will of God our glorious Lady has left us 
throughout the whole course of her life, and in her 
marriage with St. Joseph and her flight into Egypt ! 

"Whither are you going, O glorious Virgin ! with 
that pretty little 'Child ?" 

"I am going to Egypt," she will say. 

"But what makes you go there?" 

"The will of God." 

/'Shall you be long away?" 

"Just as long as God wills." 

"And when shall you return?" 

"When He shall bid me." 

"When you do come back, will you not be more 
joyful than now that you are going?" 

"No, certainly not." 

"But why?" 

"Because in going there, and in remaining there, 
I shall be doing the will of God, as well as in re- 
turning." 

"But when you return you will go again into your 
own country?" 

"Ah!" she will answer you, "I have no country 
but this, to do in all things the will of God."— vSf. 
Francis de Sales: Our Lady's Book of Days. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 895 

The chief thing for us to remember, as the sure 
basis of our devotion, is that Mary's power with 
Our Lord is still the same as it was during His life 
upon earth ; for natural feelings are not destroyed in 
glory, but are exalted and perfected. Therefore, 
the most Blessed Virgin need never fear a refusal : 
Christ's own love pleads on the side of Mary's 
prayers, for the human nature which He assumed 
appeals to Him in her ; and so we have, ever plead- 
ing our cause with God, that most powerful of all 
human advocates — a Mother at the feet of her Son. 
— Bossuet. 



Zeal for souls is of no merit if we do not love our 
own community : it is only a delusion ; charity be- 
gins at home. There are a great many command- 
ments and counsels to keep ; but all the Fathers of 
the Church are agreed that St. John was right when 
he said, that ''if we love one another we have ful- 
filled the law." We can not love Jesus Christ whom 
we can not see, if we do not love one another whom 
we do see. ''J^^ge not, and you shall not be judged." 
There will be no ''judgment" for those who never 
judged others ; they will go straight to the Sacred 
Heart. Suppose when looking at a dead sister, we 
remembered her unkind judgments of others, oh! 
how we should tremble as we prayed for her soul ! — 
Father Dignam, SJ,: Retreats. 



It is our privilege that our life is one of drudgery; 
by this we earn our highest reward, so that we 
ought to be bright. The devil makes a nest, and 
lays his eggs in a gloomy heart ; he loves darkness. 
We should be free from all desires that take away 
the peace of our souls. Sometimes we let very small 
things destroy our peace. We must be active, al- 



896 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

ways ready to help others, and to have our orders 
changed, and not confine our activity to work that 
we Hke. We should be gentle, unobtrusive in our 
charity ; quiet and calm in our exterior and heart. — 
Ibid, ' 



Make it the fixed purpose of your life to make all 
others happy as far as it is in your power, and so 
(for that will be necessary) to put self out of view 
altogether. This then ought to be the first thought 
on awakening : ''Dear Mother, for thy honor I will 
take care that everybody who speaks to me to-day 
shall go away happier.'' This thought ought to be 
the first in your examen at night: ''How^ 
many have I failed to make happy to-day?" — Ibid. 



We presume to arrogate to ourselves the power 
of deciding what we will tolerate, and what we will 
not. 'T can stand this, but I can't stand that." Some 
can not bear this defect, and some can not bear that ; 
some can't stand meanness, some can't stand un- 
truths, some can't stand rudeness ; and so on. But, 
if we look within ourselves, we shall find very often 
that the faults we condemn so in others are either 
fully developed, or, at the least, latent in our hearts. 
I remember one of our fathers once saying, that 
what he condemned in other priests, he was certain 
to find sooner or later in himself; he said, ''There 
were three things I was terribly down upon, and all 
three of them I have had to acknowledge, and bear 
in myself." I remember the story about some 
negroes ; when they quarrel they always finish by 
calling each other, "Oh, you black nigger!" This 
is the way with us — we are severe, and down upon 
others for faults and defects hardly more glaring 
than our own. Who are we that we should dare to 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. ^97 

make laws as to what is to be tolerated, and what 
punished? Poor, weak, miserable, little, wretched 
creatures, hanging by the thread of God's infinite, 
loving, patient, tender compassion ! There is not one 
of us that is not capable of committing any fault, no 
matter how serious or grave. If we have true 
humility, we shall never fail in charity; for charity 
and humility are twin sisters ; they go hand in hand. 
— Father Dignam: Retreats, 



Every human being is continually panting for 
happiness, the good and the wicked are alike de^ 
sirous of gaining it, but they seek for it by different 
means. Christ, therefore, commences His Sermon 
on the Mount with the Beatitudes, as if He were to 
say, you all desire to be happy ; listen then, and I will 
point out the ways that lead to felicity. Do you, 
therefore, take care to set your affections on this true 
happiness, and seek for it by the means which Christ 
points out. Christ honored eight virtues which are 
contemptible in the eyes of the world, with the titles 
of beatitudes. He has made these so many steps by 
which we may ascend to heaven in order to enjoy our 
ultimate and everlasting happiness. These are pov- 
erty of spirit, meekness, sorrow for sins, hunger and 
thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, the mak- 
ing of peace both with God and men, and the suffer- 
ing of persecutions for Christ's sake. You must as- 
cend these steps, if you wish to enter into the joys of 
your Lord. ''Blessed is the man whose help is from 
Thee; in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by 
steps" (Ps. Ixxxiii. 6). — Baxter: Meditations, 



''Blessed are the merciful" (Matt. v. 7). "He 
went about doing good, and healing all" (Acts x. 



Sg^ Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

38). ''He was teaching daily in the Temple'' (Luke 
xix. 47). ''Come to Me, all you that labor and are 
heavy burdened, and I will refresh you'' (Matt. xi. 
28). Consider the reward attached to works of 
mercy. "They shall obtain mercy." This mercy 
will accompany them in this life, it will extend to 
both body and soul, and it will be their reward in 
the next life : "With the same measure that you shall 
measure it shall be measured to you again" (Luke 
vi. 38). Reflect how much you stand in need of 
God's mercy, and what your case would have been 
had God dealt with you according to your deserts. 
Be merciful, therefore, to others, that you may ob- 
tain mercy. Meditate on the sentence of St. James : 
"Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done 
mercy" (James ii. 13). — Baxter: Meditations. 



Our divine Lord loves the poor sufferers in pur- 
gatory with an infinite love, and ardently desires to 
receive them into heaven. Let us try to gain many 
indulgences to-day for those who, while on earth, 
most loved and honored His Sacred Heart. — For- 
get-Me-Nots from Many Gardens, 



Silence kept in a spirit of devotion brings great 
solace to the suffering souls. There are few who do 
not sin by the tongue, and purgatory is filled with 
souls who suffer for having given that member too 
much liberty. Offer to-day for their relief some 
acts of self-denial. — Ihid. 



The Lord declares him "accursed who does His 
work negligently." What a dreadful thing to ap- 
pear before Him with imperfect works ! — prayers 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 899 

said without devotion, the Divine Office recited with 
distraction, meditations made without fruit! Let us 
pray to-day for those who are suffering for such 
offenses. — Ibid, 



Let us assist at Mass and offer a communion fre- 
quently for the relief of priests and Religious de- 
tained in purgatory. We read in the life of the 
Venerable Mary of Antigua that a nun of her con- 
vent, having died, appeared to her, and said : ''Why 
is it that you do not offer for me and for the other 
souls the Stations of the Cross?'' The servant of 
God remained in suspense at these words, when she 
heard Our Lord say to her: ''The exercise of the 
Way of the Cross is so profitable to the souls in 
purgatory that this soul has come to ask it of you 
in the name of all. The Via Crucis is a suffrage of 
great importance for these souls. By offering it for 
them you will have them as so many protectors, who 
will pray for you and defend your cause before My 
justice. Tell your Sisters to rejoice in this treasure 
and the precious capital they have in it, that they 
may profit by it." It is the common opinion of the 
Fathers and Doctors of the Church that those who 
fervently and perseveringly interest themselves for 
the souls in purgatory will not be lost. O security 
to be desired ! — Ibid, 



A short offering which may be made each morn- 
ing for the souls in purgatory : O my God ! Deign 
to accept my every thought, word, and action, as a 
loving petition to Thy mercy in behalf of the suffer- 
ing souls in purgatory, particularly . I unite 

to Thy sacred Passion the trials and contradictions 
of this day, which I purpose to bear with patience in 



900 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

expiation for the sins and infidelities which detain 
Thy children in the purifying flames of purgatory. 

—Ibid, 



In the morning and often during the day, .kiss 
your crucifix and say : *'My Jesus, I thank Thee for 
having died on the cross for my sins; have mercy 
on me, and save my soul!'' When you behold the 
three nails of the crucifix, think of the three vows by 
which you are crucified with Christ as a victim of 
love. The life of a Religious is a continual death. 
Let your life be hidden with Christ in God. Be 
faithful to your religious promise ; faithful to your 
holy Rule, which is the expression of God's will, and 
pray in the spirit of the Seraphic St. Francis : ''O 
good Jesus, may the sweet flame of Thy love con- 
sume in my heart whatever is displeasing to Thee, 
so that I may die to self and the world for love of 
Thee, who hast vouchsafed to die for love of me!" 



O souls! seek a refuge, like pure doves, in the 
shadow of the cross. There mourn the Passion of 
your divine Spouse, and drawing from your hearts 
tears of compassionate love and repentance make of 
them a precious balm with which to anoint the 
wounds of your Saviour. — St. Paul of the Cross, 



''Intra tna vidnera, absconde me.'' Within Thy 
wounds hide me. As of old Moses hid in the cleft 
of the rock and was there protected by God's right 
hand, so may I be hidden in Thy sacred wounds, the 
clefts in the Rock of ages. Within Thy wounds, 
hide me. Saviour, that henceforth my life may be 
hidden with Thee in God. — Madame Cecilia: Re- 
treat Manual. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 901 

When you are alone, take your crucifix, kiss its 
five wounds reverently, tell it to preach you a little 
sermon, and then listen to the words of eternal life 
that it speaks to your heart; listen to the pleading 
of the thorns, the nails, the precious blood. Oh, 
what an eloquent sermon! — St. Paul of the Cross: 
Flowers of the Passion. 



In temptation say : ''O my Jesus, through Thy 
Passion and death, give me the victory over this 
temptation/' Take your crucifix, kiss it devoutly 
while the temptation lasts, and rest assured that you 
will not sin. — Ibid. 



When I lie down to rest at night, I will think 
that I shall perhaps die that very night, I will then 
make a fervent act of contrition for my sins, kiss the 
crucifix, and say : ''Father, into Thy hands I com- 
mend my spirit.'' — Ibid. 



We prove our attachment to God more in suffer- 
ing a great deal for His sake than in working a great 
deal for His glory. — St. Alphonsjis Ligtwri: Vic- 
tories of the Martyrs; Introd., § 2. 



Behold the skull and cross-bones at the foot of the 
crucifix; what is the origin and meaning of this 
representation ? The American Ecclesiastical Review 
answers this question : ''According to a very old 
tradition (Detzel, Icoiiographie, Ch. IV., p. 422), 
Adam, the father of the human race, was buried on 
the spot where Our Lord died. A similar tradition 
has it that a sprig of the tree of life which Adam 
took from paradise and planted as a lasting remem- 
brance of his transgression in the place where he 
wished to be buried, became the wood from which the 



902 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

cross of Our Saviour was fashioned. Thus the tomb 
of Adam was identified with the spot on the mount 
of Calvary on which the cross was raised. So art 
has represented it for centuries, and the skull and 
bones of our first parent are placed there to indicate 
that they (and the whole race of man) receive new 
life through the death of Christ: Ecce resurgit 
Adam cut dat Deus in cruce vitamf (Inscript. 
cruc, in the Cathedral of Chur, in St. Ulricus at 
Augsburg, etc.)" 



Pray and make sacrifices for the conversion of 
the whole human race ; for love of Jesus crucified aid 
the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. There 
are in the world over one thousand millions of men 
and women in pagan and non-Catholic countries 
who are laboring in darkness and the shadow of 
death, who do not love the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
because they do not know Him. Jesus thirsts for 
souls. For love of the Sacred Heart help, and in- 
terest others in, the work of Catholic missions. 



Silence sets us free from many sins, which one is 
liable to commit in speech. "He that keepeth his 
mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from dis- 
tress'' (Prov. xxi. 23). "Blessed is he that hath not 
slipped with his tongue" (Ecclus. xxv. 11) ; "for 
the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, an unquiet 
evil, full of deadly poison" (James iii. 6, 8). Do I 
keep the Rule of silence, that I may beware of many 
sins? Am I especially careful not to sin by words 
against charity? Silence allows us time for reflec- 
tion and is a companion to prudence. Am I wont 
well to consider things ere I set to work? Unless 
one keeps his soul collected and composed, he can 
not be united with God in the sweet bonds of love, 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints, 903 

he can not listen to His words nor speak with Him, 
he can not say, with the spouse of Solomon's can- 
ticle : "My Beloved to me and I to Him (Cant. ii. 
16). "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth and 
a door roundabout my lips'' (Ps. cxl. 3), that I may 
shun all useless or hurtful speech and ever live in re- 
ligious composure. O Lord ! may I ever be mind- 
ful of the words of the Holy Ghost : "He that keep- 
eth his mouth, keepeth his soul ; but he that hath no 
guard on his speech, shall meet with evils both 
here and hereafter" (Prov. xiii. 3). — Lescoiibier: 
Monthly Recollection. 



Blessed are the actions enclosed between two 
"Hail Marys !" — St, Alphonsiis Liguori. 



"May Thy will be done !" That is what the saints 
had continually on their lips and in their hearts. — 
St, Alphonsus: Advice to Religious, 



All perfection consists in the love of God; and 
the perfection of divine love consists in the union of 
our will with that of God. — St, Alphonsiis ; Con- 
formity to the Will of God, § i. 



The ejaculatory prayers most pleasing to God are 
acts of love, resignation, and offering of one's self. 
-^-True Spouse: Ch. XX. 



May the two names, so sweet and so powerful, of 
Jesus and Mary, be always in our hearts and on our 
lips. — Glories of Mary: Pt. L Ch. X. 



If you wish to suffer in peace, say, I am making 
my purgatory. 



904 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

It is good to meditate upon the last things, death, 
judgment, eternity; but let us above all meditate 
upon the Passion of Christ. — St. Alphonsus: Advice 
to Religious, 



I must remember that I am always obliged to do 
whatever my Superiors command me, and that I 
may do it without anxiety if only it be not evidently 
against the law of God. St. Teresa, being once in 
doubt about something, was told by Our Lord : ''My 
child, you can never be wrong in obeying." O 
Lord, teach me perfect obedience that I may be 
ever ready to say, with Thy blessed Mother: ''Be- 
hold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done 
to me according to His word.'' In view of death, 
can I repeat the words which St. Peter spoke to 
Jesus : "We have done what Thou hast commanded 
us; what reward wilt Thou give us?" If I want to 
be able to speak thus at the hour of my death, what 
have I to change in my life? What must I amend, 
if I want confidently to expect death and the ever- 
lasting reward of heaven? "Every one that hath 
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name's 
sake shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess 
life everlasting" (Matt. xix. 29). Keep your heart 
pure, do well your daily works and sanctify them by 
the intention to perform them solely for the love of 
God: ''Ad majorem Dei Gloriam!' and you will be- 
come a saint. — Lescoubier: Monthly Recollection, 



Am I ready for death ? If I had to die at the pres- 
ent moment, would I have no fear of being lost? 
But if to-day I deserve hell, shall I deserve heaven 
to-morrow? Besides, the morrow is uncertain: I 
do not know whether to-morrow I shall be alive. 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 905 

I will then take care, this very moment ; I will elicit 
an act of perfect contrition over my past sins and 
begin a new life. Which way am I walking? Am I 
on the road of pride and disobedience ? On the road 
of self-indulgence and guilty pleasure? On the road 
of self-will and ambition? On the road of sloth and 
carelessness? This very day I will leave that road, 
lest it bring me to ''the place of torments" (Luke 
xvi. 28). — Ibid, 



Meditate often and seriously on the happiness of 
heaven. Such meditations, besides deepening our 
knowledge of God, and of the things He has pre- 
pared for them that love Him, have a wonderful 
power of detaching our hearts from the transitory 
pleasures and honors of this world. They, more- 
over, create in our. soul an unquenchable thirst for 
the vision and possession of God, while they infuse 
into us a new courage to battle manfully against all 
the obstacles which beset our path in the practice of 
virtue. 



Such meditations fill us, moreover, with a laud- 
able and noble ambition of reaching a high degree 
of union with God. This w^as the ambition of the 
saints, and it should be ours also. It was this desire 
of a most intimate union with God, that caused them 
to deny themselves even the most innocent pleasures 
of this world, and to undergo sufferings, the bare 
recital of which makes our poor nature shud- 
der. They knew that ''our present tribulation, 
which is momentary and light, worketh for us 
above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of 
glory'' (2 Cor. iv. 17). — Boudreaiix: The Happiness 
of Heaven. 



9o6 Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 

In the thirty-seventh chapter of her Life, St. 
Teresa speaks thus : '*I would not lose, through any 
fault of mine, the least degree of further enjoyment 
in heaven. I even go so far as to declare that, if the 
choice were offered to me whether I would rather 
remain subject to all the afflictions of the world, 
even to the end of it, and then ascend, by that means, 
to the possession of a little more glory in heaven ; 
or else, without any affliction at all, enjoy a little 
less glory, I would most willingly accept all the 
troubles and afflictions for a little more enjoyment, 
that so I might understand a little more of the great- 
ness of God ; because I see that he who understands 
more of Him, loves and praises Him so much the 
more." Here is the ambition of a great saint. It is 
not after crowns or scepters, or the glory of this 
world that she sighs, but after a single degree of 
higher enjoyment in heaven; and to obtain that she 
is willing to remain sufifering in this wretched world 
to the end of time. Let such be your ambition in 
the future. If not in so sublime a degree, let it, at 
least, be directed only to the acquisition of "treas- 
ures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust con- 
sume, and where thieves do not break through and 
steal" (Matt. vi. 19). Labor incessantly for that 
''inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that can not 
fade, reserved in heaven for you" (i Pet. i. 4). "Be 
faithful unto death," says Our Lord Jesus Christ, 
"and I will give thee the crown of life" (Apoc. ii. 
10). — Boudreaux: Ibid. 



"The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing. 
He hath set me in a place of pasture." "Though I 
should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I 
will fear no evils, for Thou art with me." "And 



Maxims and Counsels of Saints. 907 

Thy mercy will follow me all the days of my life/' 
— Ps. xxii. 



'Tn Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never 
be confounded." ''Bow down Thy ear to me; make 
haste to deliver me." "Be Thou unto me a God, a 
protector, and a house of refuge to save me." ''I 
have hoped in the Lord; I will be glad and rejoice 
in Thy mercy." ''Make Thy face to shine upon Thy 
servant, save me in Thy mercy." — Ps, xxx. 



2l^ ^ajorem Wei ©loriam^ 

Fiat, laudetur atque in May the most just, most 
seternum superexaltetur jus- high, and most amiable will 
tissima, altissima et ama- of God be done in all things, 
bilissima voluntas Dei in be praised and magnified 
omnibus. forever! 



Hesartiing Special €:onfessors ot 3Elelisious Communities 

BATHER McNiCHOLAS, O.P., says : By the special 
confessor of nuns is not meant the ordinary, 
nor the extraordinary, as we understand the extraor- 
dinary, but one that is sought whenever some special 
need is felt by the individual to unburden herself to 
some priest appointed for this purpose. If the pre- 
dominant thought of the penitent were a considera- 
tion of his or her offenses against God, united with a 
profound sorrow and an earnest entreaty for 
forgiveness, and ruled by charity, the personality 
of the confessor might be an unknown quantity. We 
face, however, the fact which often defies analysis, 
that we can open entirely our conscience to one con- 
fessor and can unhesitatingly subject our actions and 
motives to his most searching scrutiny, while to an- 
other, w^ho may be more sympathetic and kind, an 
undefinable something prevents an open and free 
manifestation. Too many priests do not give this 
fact sufficient consideration when dealing with nuns 
as penitents. How many priests, even, are there who 
can say, 'Tt makes no difference to whom I go to 
confession"? And priests, as a rule, are not looking 
for direction or directors in the choice of their con- 
fessor. St. Thomas says that a confessor would sin 
who would not willingly grant to a penitent permis- 
sion to confess to another, because many penitents 
would rather indefinitely postpone confession than 
confess to certain priests. Conscience is a delicate 
thing. We cannot form it as we do a table or a vase. 



Qio Addenda. 

It does not work automatically; but human life- 
strings, which unexpectedly pull in this or that direc- 
tion, rule it. The difficulties referred to will exist as 
long as the personality of the confessor means what 
it does, as long as spirituality makes tender con- 
sciences, as long as persons consecrated to the ser- 
vice of God are human, as long as nuns are nuns.* 

Since the recent decree of the Congregation of the 
Council f urges that daily Communion be promoted 
in all religious communities, and, as a matter of fact, 
since the Holy Father's wish has been carried out in 
many of the convents of nuns, the provision by our 
Bishops of special confessors becomes more impera- 
tive. 

As stated in my first paper,J only one ordinary 
confessor is to be appointed for a community, and, 
as his designation signifies, he alone is to hear regu- 
larly the confessions of its members. For the same 
community, however, there may be several special 
confessors§ (confessarii adjimcti). According to the 
general law of the Church, special confessors of sis- 
terhoods, or of communities that make profession of 
simple or perpetual vows, do not require the special 
approbation which must be given for nuns of solemn 
vows.f The particular law, however, of most dio- 
ceses requires special approbation, and this ''ad 
validitatem/'\\ 

^Consult the Decree Quemadmodum regarding the 
special confessors of nuns or sisters. 

t20 December, 1905, in the EccL Review, July, 1906, p. 81. 
See ''The Holy Father's Wishes Regarding Daily Com- 
munion," ibidem, p. 60. 

XEccl Review, October, 1906, p. 351. 

^Quemadmodum, n. IV. ; Normce, 147. 

ilnscrutahile Dei, Gregory XV., 5, February, 1622; Ecc\. 
Review, October, 1906 ; Gennari : Consultazioni, I, p. 72>7' 

II The Visitation Nuns in a few dioceses make solemn pro- 
fession. 



Addenda, 911 

It is to be observed that three recent Papal docu- 
ments — the Qitemadmodum (17 Dec, 1890), 
Conditce (8 Dec, 1899) and Normce (Cong. EE. et 
RR., 28 June, 1901) — confirm absolutely the provi- 
sions of the ''Pastoralis Cures'' in so far as they re- 
gard the confessors of nuns. 

The Quemadmodum makes further specifica- 
tions even more favorable to the nuns, declaring (n. 
IV.) : ''Moreover, while the prescriptions of the 
Holy Council of Trent and the decree of Benedict 
XIV. in his Pastoralis Curce retain their full vigor, 
His Holiness admonishes prelates and superiors not 
to deny their subjects an extraordinary confessor as 
often as the need of their conscience requires it, and 
this without seeking in any way to find out the rea- 
son why their subjects make such a demand, or with- 
out showing that they resent it.'' 

As can be seen, the decree Quemadmodum (n. 
IV.) takes hold of the provision of the special con- 
fessor in a very practical way by further adding: 
''Lest so provident a disposition [of the Pastoralis 
Curce] as this should be made illusory, His Holi- 
ness exhorts the ordinaries to name in all localities 
of their dioceses in which there are communities of 
women well-qualified priests with the necessary fac- 
ulties to whom such Religious may easily have re- 
course to receive the Sacrament of Penance.'' The 
NorriicF confirm this legislation of the special con- 
fessor and add : ''Where bishops, in compliance with 
the instructions of the Quemadmodum, have ap- 
pointed the qualified priests with the necessary facul- 
ties, superiors may have recourse to these without 
being obliged to ask the bishop in each case" for a 
special confessor. — Ecclesiastical Review, April, 
1907. 

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